United Evangelical Lutheran Cemetery
Schulenburg, Fayette County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(Philadelphia Evangelical Lutheran Church Cemetery) The Swiss Alp community was settled about 1865. Within a short time, the Philadelphia Evangelical Lutheran Church was established and began meeting on land given by John and Christina Knippa in 1867. The first recorded burial on this site is that of Emma Gertraut Ritter, who died in October 1867. She was soon followed by Anna Rudi, the wife of Pastor C. C. Rudi. Ten more church members were interred here before the site was formally established as a cemetery in February 1877. Other members of the Rudi family are interred here along with numerous church members. After several small area churches merged in 1967 the church name was changed to United Evangelical Lutheran Church and Cemetery. The historic graveyard contains both marked and unmarked burials. (1999)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The Swiss Alp community took shape around 1865, and within two years the Philadelphia Evangelical Lutheran Church was meeting on land given by John and Christina Knippa. The first burial, in 1867, was of Emma Gertraut Ritter, soon followed by the pastor's wife, and a decade of church interments preceded the site's formal establishment as a cemetery in 1877. A 1967 merger of small area churches gave the ground its present name.
Why it matters
The graveyard is a quiet record of the immigrant Lutheran congregations that anchored Central Texas farm communities, binding faith, family, and land across generations.
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Related people
- · C. C. Rudi
Themes & tags
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