Round Rock Cemetery
Round Rock, Williamson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Established in the early 1850s in what is now known as Old Round Rock, this cemetery is the burial ground of many area pioneers and outstanding Round Rock citizens. The oldest legible tombstone, which marks the burial site of 11-year-old Angeline Scott, bears the year 1851, although there are many unmarked graves that could date from before that time. One-half acre in the northwest part of the 4.5-acre cemetery was used as a burial ground for slaves and freedmen during the nineteenth century. Numerous war veterans are buried here, as is bank robber and outlaw Sam Bass, who died July 21, 1878, two days after being shot by Texas Rangers in Round Rock. Other buried in the cemetery include G. T. Cole, one of the few area eye doctors; Round Rock broom factory owner Sam Landrum; stonemason John H. Gray; Round Rock Presbyterian Church minister John Hudson; and Methodist circuit rider J. W. Ledbetter. One unusual tombstone, which marks the gravesite of Mary Ann Lavender, bears the date February 30, 1870. The Round Rock Cemetery, which contains more than 2,000 graves, is a visible reminder of the early history of this part of Williamson County. The burial ground is cared for by the Round Rock Cemetery Association. (1983)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Established in the early 1850s, this burial ground holds more than 2,000 graves, its oldest legible stone marking eleven-year-old Angeline Scott in 1851. A half-acre served as a segregated burial ground for enslaved people and freedmen in the nineteenth century, and among the veterans and pioneers rests outlaw Sam Bass, who died here in 1878 two days after being shot by Texas Rangers. The cemetery's roll of doctors, ministers, and tradesmen reads like a directory of early Round Rock.
Why it matters
From a segregated slave-burial section to the grave of a legendary outlaw, the cemetery preserves in one plot the layered social history of a frontier Texas town.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the early 1850s, when this cemetery began, central Texas was a new American frontier. Texas had joined the Union only a few years before, and settlers were spreading into the rolling country along Brushy Creek, where the rocky Hill Country meets the blackland prairie. Round Rock took its name from a distinctive round rock in the creek bed, a landmark travelers used to find a good crossing.
It was also a slaveholding frontier. Many settlers who came to Texas brought enslaved people with them, and slavery shaped the region's farms and households until emancipation. After the Civil War, freedmen and their families built new lives in the same communities, often still hemmed in by segregation in daily life and even in death.
By the 1870s the frontier was giving way to the railroad age. When the tracks came through the area, the town's center shifted, and the original settlement became known as Old Round Rock. The cemetery stayed put, keeping the story of the town's earliest decades.
People & events
The oldest legible stone here belongs to a child. Angeline Scott was eleven years old when she was buried in 1851. Her stone is a reminder of how fragile frontier life was, and it is only the oldest we can still read. Many unmarked graves may be older. In the cemetery's northwest corner, a half-acre was set aside for enslaved people and freedmen during the nineteenth century. Their names are mostly lost, but they helped build this community as surely as anyone buried under a carved headstone.
The most famous grave belongs to the outlaw Sam Bass. In July 1878, Bass and his gang came to Round Rock, reportedly planning to rob the bank. A member of the gang had tipped off the authorities, and Texas Rangers and local lawmen were waiting. In the gunfight that followed Bass was badly wounded. He died two days later, on July 21, 1878, and was buried here. His story quickly grew into legend, retold in songs and tales that often made him more of a folk hero than his record deserved.
The cemetery's quieter residents tell the story of a working town. There is G. T. Cole, one of the few eye doctors in the area; Sam Landrum, who owned a broom factory; stonemason John H. Gray; Presbyterian minister John Hudson; and J. W. Ledbetter, a Methodist circuit rider who traveled from settlement to settlement to preach. Many war veterans rest here too. And then there is a small mystery: Mary Ann Lavender's stone gives a date of February 30, 1870, a day that has never existed. Nobody knows for sure how the mistake got carved into stone.
Its place in the American story
Frontier cemeteries are some of the most honest records of American history, and this one holds a lot. The segregated half-acre shows how slavery and then segregation followed people even to the grave, a pattern repeated in burial grounds across the South. Paying attention to those often unmarked plots is part of telling the full story of who settled the American West.
Sam Bass's grave ties this quiet spot to the lasting American fascination with the Wild West outlaw. His life and death became the stuff of ballads and dime novels, part of a national mythmaking that turned train and bank robbers into romantic figures. The real story, a tip-off, an ambush, and a slow death, is more sobering than the legend.
Mostly, though, the cemetery shows how an American frontier town was actually built: by doctors and ministers, stonemasons and factory owners, veterans and children, and enslaved and freed Black Texans. More than 2,000 graves add up to a portrait of a whole community.
If you visit
Walk slowly, since this is a place to read. The stones range from weathered markers from the town's first years to later monuments, and following the dates is like turning the pages of Round Rock's history. Look for the old graves, and remember that much of the cemetery's past lies in graves with no marker at all.
Take time to find the northwest section, where enslaved people and freedmen were buried. It may look like open ground, but it is some of the most meaningful ground here. Many visitors also look for Sam Bass's grave, which draws the curious as it has for generations. Please be respectful. This is still a cemetery cared for by a local association, and families still visit.
The cemetery is in Old Round Rock, the town's original settlement, so it pairs naturally with a look at Brushy Creek and the town's older historic sites. It's an easy stop off the main north-south route through central Texas, and a good way to break up a drive between Austin and points north.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Sam Bass
- · Angeline Scott
Themes & tags
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