Zephyr Cemetery
Zephyr, Brown County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The unincorporated town of Zephyr, located on land granted to early settlers Benjamin Head and Felix Wardziski, was established in the 1860s. As the settlement grew, a school was opened in the 1870s, and churches and businesses were established. Mail was delivered weekly from Brownwood. This cemetery has served the residents of Zephyr and the surrounding area since the 1870s. The earliest known burials in the graveyard are those of three children of the Staggs family, who died in 1878 and 1879. Another early grave is that of Ann Catherine Sewell Ward (1843-1879). The first official deed of cemetery property took place in 1899, although it was in use prior to that time. Subsequent land acquisitions have increased the size of the graveyard to more than seven acres. Among those buried here are thirty-three victims of the devastating tornado of May 29, 1909, which almost completely destroyed the town, and veterans of six wars: the Mexican War, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. The Zephyr Cemetery stands as a reminder of the pioneer spirit of the area's early settlers. It is maintained by the Zephyr Cemetery Association. (1988)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The town of Zephyr took shape in the 1860s on early land grants, gaining a school in the 1870s, churches, businesses, and weekly mail from Brownwood, while this cemetery served the area from the same decade. Among its graves are veterans of six American wars, from the Mexican War through Vietnam, and thirty-three victims of the catastrophic tornado of May 29, 1909, which nearly wiped the town off the map. Now grown past seven acres, the burial ground endures as a monument to the community's resilience.
Why it matters
Zephyr Cemetery holds both the sweep of American military service across a century and the memory of a natural disaster that tested a small town's will to survive.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Benjamin Head
- · Ann Catherine Sewell Ward
Related events
- · 1909 Zephyr tornado
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Jenkins Springs Cemetery
Brownwood, TX
Richardson Jenkins, one of Brown County's earliest pioneers, settled a farm northeast of Brownwood whose spring took his name and later served the local school and church. The county's earliest known graves here belong to four army surveyors ambushed and killed nearby, and Jenkins himself, who died in 1867, has the first marked grave; veterans from the Civil War through Vietnam also rest in the cemetery.
Elkins Cemetery
Brownwood vicinity, TX
This burial ground began in 1876, the year pioneer minister Noah T. Byars helped found Live Oak Baptist Church and Civil War veteran Silas H. Wood settled his family here from Mississippi. Wood deeded the graveyard to the church in 1884, and it grew alongside a community known first as Gholson and later Elkins. Interments paused during World War II when Camp Bowie displaced the town, then resumed after the camp closed in 1947.
Connell Cemetery
Brownwood vicinity, TX
William Connell brought his family to Texas in 1834 and lived through its most formative decades, serving in the Republic of Texas Army, the Texas Rangers, and later the Confederate Army. The cemetery that bears his name—thought to be among the oldest in Brown County—was likely in use before 1861, and when the Connells buried their son in 1866 they set what is believed to be its first headstone. Sixteen families and more than twenty unmarked graves lie here, a quiet record of the pioneers who settled this frontier.
Brown County
Brownwood, TX
Brown County was created in 1856 and organized the next year, named for Capt. Henry S. Brown, who came to Texas in 1824 as an Indian trader and frontier fighter. Brown commanded a company at the 1832 Battle of Velasco and served in the Convention of 1832, one of the steps toward Texas independence. The county seat of Brownwood was named for him and moved to a new site of the same name in 1867.