Star Hill Cemetery
Industry, Austin County, Texas
Marker Inscription
War of 1812 veteran Bryan Daughtrey and his wife, Anna (Roberts), moved to Texas in 1822 as part of Stephen F. Austin's Second Colony. In 1829, they moved to land here in present Austin County. When Anna died in 1847, Bryant buried her at this site, and he later moved from the area. His sons James and Edward eventually sold the family property to Frederick W. Sternenberg. His family also used the cemetery. He buried his wife, Julia H. (Brauss), here in 1861, and Sternenberg and a grandson, Gustav, were interred at the site in 1869. In 1878, Rudolph Sternenberg sold the land to Charles Wendt, with one acre reserved for the cemetery. The local community and its burial ground, as well as a school in operation until 1928, came to be known as Star Hill, the English translation for the Sternenberg name. Star Hill community residents continue to use the early burial ground, which is maintained by an association that was formed by James Edward Huebner in 1975. It includes descendants of pioneer area settlers, as well as friends and neighbors. Among those interred here are veterans of military conflicts dating to the Civil War. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2004
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Bryan Daughtrey, a veteran of the War of 1812, came to Texas in 1822 as part of Stephen F. Austin's Second Colony and settled here in present Austin County. When his wife Anna died in 1847 he buried her on this spot, beginning a cemetery later used by the German Sternenberg family who bought the land. The community, its burial ground, and a school that ran until 1928 all took the name Star Hill—the English translation of Sternenberg—and descendants of those pioneer families still tend the graves.
Why it matters
Star Hill reflects the layered settlement of central Texas, where Anglo colonists of Austin's grants and later German immigrants built a shared community out of the frontier.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the 1820s, Mexican Texas was opening to American settlers through empresario grants, and Stephen F. Austin was the most famous of the men who ran them. Austin brought families into the fertile river country of southeast Texas on the promise of land. In return, settlers were expected to become loyal citizens of Mexico. Bryan and Anna Daughtrey arrived in 1822 as part of what the marker calls Austin's Second Colony, at the very beginning of Anglo-American settlement in Texas.
The land around present-day Industry, in Austin County, soon drew a second wave of settlers: Germans. Beginning in the 1830s and growing through the 1840s, German immigrants poured into this part of Texas. They were drawn by reports of cheap, fertile land, and many were pushed by hard times and political turmoil at home. The Industry area became one of the earliest centers of German settlement in Texas.
Over the next few decades the region went through enormous change. It passed from Mexican rule to the Republic of Texas, then to the United States, then through the Civil War. Through all of it, small family cemeteries like this one gave continuity to communities whose national flags kept changing.
People & events
Bryan Daughtrey had already served his country once, in the War of 1812, before he and his wife Anna set out for Texas. After several years in Austin's colony, they moved in 1829 to land here in what is now Austin County. When Anna died in 1847, Bryan buried her on their own land, and that grave became the first in what would become Star Hill Cemetery. Bryan later left the area, and his sons James and Edward eventually sold the family property.
The buyer was Frederick W. Sternenberg, and his arrival gave the place its lasting identity. His family also buried their dead on the hill. His wife Julia was laid to rest here in 1861, and Frederick himself and a grandson, Gustav, followed in 1869. Two families, one Anglo-American and one German, who probably never knew each other well, ended up sharing the same small piece of ground.
In 1878 Rudolph Sternenberg sold the land to Charles Wendt and reserved one acre for the cemetery, a thoughtful act that kept the graves protected. Over time the whole neighborhood, including its school, which ran until 1928, took the name Star Hill, an English translation of "Sternenberg." In 1975 James Edward Huebner organized an association to care for the cemetery, and descendants and neighbors keep it going today.
Its place in the American story
Star Hill is a small version of how Texas, and much of America, was built in layers. First came the Anglo-American colonists of the empresario era, then European immigrants who brought their own language, customs and names. The fact that the community's name is a translation of a German surname shows how these cultures blended instead of simply replacing one another.
The cemetery also connects to America's wars across generations. It begins with the wife of a War of 1812 veteran and includes veterans of conflicts from the Civil War onward. Family by family, ordinary rural people carried their share of the nation's military history.
It also shows a very American kind of stewardship. Without any government agency in charge, descendants, friends and neighbors formed their own association to protect a burial ground that goes back to Austin's colony. That bottom-up care is the main reason so many early Texas cemeteries survive at all.
If you visit
Star Hill is a peaceful country cemetery in the rolling farmland around Industry, in the heart of the region Texans associate with early German settlement. Watch for gravestones that reflect both heritages. On older German-Texan stones you may find German inscriptions and names, next to the English of the earliest settlers.
It makes a good stop on a scenic drive through Austin County and the surrounding countryside, an area dotted with small towns, painted churches and historic German communities. Spring, when wildflowers line the back roads, is an especially lovely time to come.
This is an active community cemetery, still in use and lovingly kept up. Visit quietly, leave decorations as you find them, and take a moment to think about the families, from Austin's colonists to German newcomers, who shaped this hill.
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
- · Bryan Daughtrey
- · Frederick W. Sternenberg
Themes & tags
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