San Marcos Cemetery
San Marcos, Hays County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This cemetery lies within the Mexican land grant acquired by Thomas J. Chambers in 1834. Chambers died in 1865 and in 1867 his widow, Abbey, sold 3,000 acres containing this site to H. N. Duble at an estate sale held in Galveston. A portion of the cemetery site was purchased by Freedman Peter Roberts in Galveston in 1868. Local tradition suggests that slaves of the area's earliest settlers were buried here prior to the first recorded burial, that of Major C. Rogers in 1876. The San Marcos Cemetery Association was organized in 1876 by Edward Burleson Jr., L. w. Mitchell, W. J. Joyce, E. P. Raynolds, Wallace Carnahan and W. O. Hutchison. That year the association bought 10 acres here from Judy Covington Dixon and her husband, Shadrach Dixon. By 1924 the cemetery acreage had increased to more than 20 acres due to land acquisitions from: H. S. and Laura Jane Harvey in 1890; W. O. Hutchison in 1892; Dock and Sarah Roberts in 1902; Beverly Hutchison in 1904; and Dock Roberts and John McGehee in 1908. San Marcos acquired the cemetery in 1924 and in 1964 a perpetual care trust fund was created by private citizens. Interred here are many pioneer settlers, War of 1812 veteran Louis Lawshe, and veterans of other conflicts ranging from the Texas Revolution (1835-36) to Vietnam.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Rooted in an 1834 Mexican land grant, this burial ground took shape in the decades after the Civil War, when a portion was purchased in 1868 by freedman Peter Roberts and, in 1876, a cemetery association bought ten acres to formalize the grounds. Local tradition holds that enslaved people were laid here even earlier, and over the following decades the cemetery grew to more than twenty acres. Those interred include pioneer settlers and veterans of conflicts from the Texas Revolution through Vietnam.
Why it matters
The cemetery preserves the layered story of central Texas settlement — Mexican land grants, slavery and emancipation, and generations of pioneers and soldiers — gathered in a single sacred ground.
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Related people
- · Thomas J. Chambers
- · Peter Roberts
- · Edward Burleson Jr.
- · Louis Lawshe
Related events
- · Texas Revolution
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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