Von Hugo-Von Clausewitz Family Cemetery
Yoakum, DeWitt County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(1,000 feet south) The nearby oak grove served as a family cemetery from the 1870s, originally for two Prussian families immigrating to Texas in the 1850s. They sailed to the port of Indianola and settled here, close to Hochheim Prairie (3 miles west). Carl Ottomar Gunther Theodor Von Hugo (1805-1875) originally owned the property; his is the oldest marked grave in the cemetery. He was born in Prussia and married Albertine Amalie Elise Elenore, Countess Zu Dohna (1813-1890), also a Prussian native. Gustav Adolph Frederick Von Clausewitz (1802-1874) owned the land adjacent to the cemetery. He was born at Berg, Prussia, and his passport for immigration was dated 1858. He married Elise Elenore Wilhelmine, Countess Zu Dohna (1817-1870), sister of Albertine Von Hugo. Both Von Clausewitz graves are now unmarked but are recorded in the family cemetery. The cemetery has some 14 known graves, and possibly others from before the turn of the century. Other family names represented in the cemetery by record are Barth, Bulwer, Nelson, Petering, and Stablefeld. Burials ceased evidently after the completion of nearby St. Ann's Church in 1906 and the location there of a church cemetery. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Two Prussian families of noble descent sailed to the port of Indianola in the 1850s and settled near Hochheim Prairie in DeWitt County, linked by marriage to the same Countess zu Dohna line. From the 1870s the nearby oak grove served as their family cemetery, its oldest marked grave that of Carl Ottomar von Hugo, who had owned the property. Burials largely ceased after a church cemetery opened at St. Ann's in 1906, leaving some fourteen known graves among the oaks.
Why it matters
The little graveyard preserves the memory of aristocratic German immigrants who traded titles in Prussia for farmland in Texas, part of the great wave of German settlement in the state.
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Related people
- · Carl Ottomar von Hugo
- · Gustav Adolph von Clausewitz
- · Countess zu Dohna
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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