Sabas Cavazos Cemetery
Brownsville, Cameron County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Established in 1878 with the burial of rancher and businessman Sabas Cavazos, this small cemetery has served the Cavazos and related families for more than a century. It is located within the Portrero de Don Sabas Cavazos, a portion of the Espiritu Santo land grant conveyed to Jose Salvador de la Garza by the King of Spain in 1781. Born December 4, 1809, in Camargo, Nuevo Santander, Mexico, Sabas Cavazos was the son of Jose Maria Francisco Cavazos and Estefana Goseascochea, and a great-grandson of Jose Salvador de la Garza. Encompassing more than one-quarter million acres of land, the Espiritu Santo Grant included the future sites of Fort Brown and the City of Brownsville. The de la Garza Family established Rancho Viejo, the first settlement in the Brownsville area. The communities of San Pedro, El Carmen, La Gloria, and La Puerta were established by Dona Estefana. Although in use since 1878, the cemetery was not officially recorded in deed records until 1947. Among those buried here are members of the extended Cavazos Family, their relatives, and members of the San Pedro Community. The site is maintained by descendants of persons buried here.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This small cemetery began in 1878 with the burial of rancher and businessman Sabas Cavazos, and it lies within a portion of the vast Espiritu Santo grant that the King of Spain conveyed to José Salvador de la Garza in 1781. Cavazos, born in 1809 in Camargo, was a great-grandson of the original grantee, and the grant itself encompassed a quarter-million acres including the future sites of Fort Brown and Brownsville. The de la Garza family founded the region's first settlements, several established by the matriarch Doña Estefana.
Why it matters
The cemetery anchors the Spanish land-grant heritage of the lower Rio Grande, a reminder that Tejano ranching families settled and named this borderland long before it became part of the United States.
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Related people
- · Sabas Cavazos
- · José Salvador de la Garza
- · Doña Estefana Goseascochea
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Estéfana Goseascochea Cemetery
Brownsville, TX
On the ranchlands of the lower Rio Grande, María Estéfana Goseascochea de Cavazos y de Cortina — Doña Estéfana — set aside this burial ground by the mid-1800s on land she held from the Espíritu Santo grant. Widowed twice, she moved her family to Rancho el Carmen in 1848, building a house and chapel and anchoring a ranching community even as speculators stripped away part of her land despite a court in her favor. When she died in 1867, a Brownsville paper remembered her boundless philanthropy, and her son Juan Cortina became one of south Texas's most storied figures.
Santa Rita
Brownsville, TX
In 1848–1849, just after the Mexican–American War fixed the Rio Grande as an international border, Santa Rita rose as the first Anglo-American settlement on the lower river and briefly served as the county seat of newly organized Cameron County. The town did not endure, and the marker now stands where it once was. Its short life reflects the volatile early years of American settlement along the border.
Esparza Cemetery
Brownsville, TX
This graveyard is named for Carlos Villarreal Esparza, whose family had ranched the surrounding land since the early 19th century. When flooding threatened the original burial ground, his widow Francisca moved his grave and others to this site in 1888, and family tradition holds that Carlos's parents rest here as well. The cemetery holds veterans of both World Wars, law officers, Texas Rangers, and civic leaders—a lasting record of the area's Mexican American pioneers.
Rancho Viejo
Brownsville, TX
In 1771, Jose Salvador de la Garza established his ranch, El Espiritu Santo, on this ground — the first European settlement in what is now Cameron County. His holding was part of the vast system of Spanish land grants that spread cattle ranching across the lower Rio Grande frontier long before Texas was American. The site marks the deep Spanish colonial roots of the region's ranching culture.