Trinity United Methodist Church Cemetery
Castell, Llano County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The oldest documented grave in this burial ground, that of two-year-old Feodor Leifeste, dates from 1871. Two years later, Carl Lehmberg deeded land to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, setting aside this part of the property for a cemetery. Reflecting the area's German heritage, the burial ground contains both marked and unmarked graves and historically served the Castell, Mason and Llano communities. Burials here include those of German immigrants and their descendants, several ordained Methodist ministers, and veterans of armed conflicts dating back to the Civil War. (2001)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The oldest documented grave here, that of two-year-old Feodor Leifeste, dates to 1871, and two years later Carl Lehmberg deeded the land to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, for a cemetery. Reflecting the region's strong German heritage, the burial ground served the Castell, Mason, and Llano communities with both marked and unmarked graves. Among those interred are German immigrants, Methodist ministers, and veterans of conflicts reaching back to the Civil War.
Why it matters
The cemetery is a lasting record of the German Methodist settlers who shaped the culture and faith of the central Texas Hill Country.
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Related people
- · Carl Lehmberg
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Castell School
Castell, TX
Schooling in the German settlement of Castell may reach back to 1852 by local tradition, but the written record begins in 1884, when Llano County designated it School District No. 6. The community built a two-room schoolhouse, expanded to three rooms in 1929, that taught ten grades — students finished high school in Llano, Fredericksburg, or Mason. Declining enrollment closed the school in 1948, after which the building lived on as a community center.
German Settlements
Castell, TX
In 1847 the German Emigration Company, led by Commissioner General John O. Meusebach, founded three settlements on the Fisher-Miller land grant. Castell, settled by Fredericksburg pioneers, became Llano County's first permanent town and the only lasting community the company established on the grant. Its neighbors did not survive: Leiningen vanished entirely, and Bettina — the first communal settlement in Texas — was abandoned within a year when supplies ran out.
St. John Lutheran Church Cemetery
Llano, TX
When a young member of St. John Lutheran Church died in 1930, the congregation purchased this half-acre for a cemetery, and an older grave endangered by the nearby Llano River was later moved here as well. Cared for by church members and family descendants, the ground holds many of the beloved citizens of the Castell area's German community. It was designated a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2001.
St. John Lutheran Church
Castell, TX
German Lutherans along the Llano River were served by a circuit-riding lay minister as early as 1870, and formal congregations arose on both sides of the river in the Leiningen settlement in the following decades. The two churches merged in 1926 as St. Johannes Evangelische Gemeinde and built a new sanctuary, worshiping in German until the 1950s. As the community anglicized, the name became St. John Lutheran Church.