St. John Evangelical Lutheran Cemetery
Meyersville, DeWitt County, Texas
Marker Inscription
ST. JOHN EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CEMETERY PASTOR CHRISTOPH ADAM SAGER ESTABLISHED THE ST. JOHN EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH AND CEMETERY AT THIS SITE IN 1851. THIS IS THE FIRST LUTHERAN CONGREGATION FORMED IN DeWITT COUNTY AND ONE OF THE OLDEST IN TEXAS. THE CEMETERY LIES ON THE ORIGINAL ACRE DONATED BY CHRISTOPH AND JOHANNA THIEME AND EXTENDS ONTO LAND ACQUIRED IN 1880. THERE ARE MANY UNMARKED GRAVES; THE EARLIEST, AS DOCUMENTED BY CHURCH RECORDS, IS THAT OF AMALIA ECKERT WHO DIED IN 1854. THE DECENDANTS OF THESE GERMAN IMMIGRANTS MAINTAIN THIS BURIAL GROUND, A CHRONICLE OF THE SETTLERS OF THE MEYERSVILLE AREA OF DeWITT COUNTY. HISTORIC TEXAS CEMETERY 2001
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Pastor Christoph Adam Sager established this Lutheran church and cemetery in 1851, founding the first Lutheran congregation in DeWitt County and one of the oldest in Texas. The burial ground began on a single acre donated by Christoph and Johanna Thieme and grew with land added in 1880; its earliest documented grave, from 1854, belongs to Amalia Eckert. Many unmarked graves lie among the markers that German immigrant families still tend today.
Why it matters
This cemetery is a chronicle in stone of the German Lutherans who settled the Texas Hill Country, preserving the faith and heritage of an immigrant community that shaped South Texas.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Christoph Adam Sager
- · Amalia Eckert
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Weser
Weesatche, TX
Weser took its name from the immigrant ship that carried many German and Polish families to the Port of Galveston in the 19th century, some of whom pushed inland to settle Goliad County in the 1850s and 1860s. By 1900 the little farming and ranching town had a store, grist mill, cotton gin, school, saloon, telegraph office, lodge hall, and even a brass band, peaking at 153 residents in 1904. As younger generations left for the cities after the 1920s, Weser dwindled to a handful of people—a quiet emblem of the rural community it once was.
Zion Arneckeville Cemetery
Cuero, TX
German settlers reached this five-mile Coleto country in the late 1840s, at first walking or riding eight miles to Meyersville for church until Pastor Christoph Adam Sager began ministering to them in 1860. The community bought land from his brother Michael, dedicated a log Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1868, and by 1886 had assembled ten acres holding the church, cemetery, school, and parsonage. Beneath live oaks rest charter members and namesakes of Arneckeville, including Heinrich Arnecke and German-immigration figure Johann Christoph Thieme.
Schlinke, Charles A.
Cuero, TX
Born in Posen, Germany, in 1863, Charles A. Schlinke immigrated to Texas as a boy and grew into one of DeWitt County's leading citizens. He built up thousands of acres, raised horses and mules for market, became a U.S. citizen in 1893, and repeatedly gave of his own land — for a schoolhouse, for a public road he had first protested, and for a park honoring his late wife. A founding member of the Lindenau shooting club, he was remembered at his death in 1940 as a man devoted to family, community, and church.
Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery
Yorktown, TX
In 1867 Anton and Lucyia Koszielsky deeded land near Yorktown for a Catholic burial ground to serve a growing immigrant community, and later families enlarged it and adorned it with a crucifixion monument and statuary. The spelling of the founders' name shifting from Koszielsky to Kozelski over the generations quietly records the assimilation of Central European Catholics into South Texas.