Zimmerman Cemetery
Port Lavaca, Calhoun County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The earliest marked grave in the Zimmerman Cemetery, that of Georchim Wedig, is dated 1852. In 1863, Wedig's daughter Katherine married John Gonzales (1838-1918), who had come to Indianola in 1858 with Joseph Mendez (d. 1904) as a caretaker for a shipload of camels imported by the U.S. Army as part of an experiment in frontier transportation. Native of Spain, both Gonzales and Mendez are buried in the graveyard. The burial ground, which served the communities of Magnolia Beach and Indianola, takes its name from the family of August Zimmerman, a son-in-law of John Gonzalez. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986 Supplemental plate (1989) Correction: The last line of the Zimmerman Cemetery historical marker should read "son-in-law of Joseph Mendez."
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This coastal graveyard, whose earliest marked burial dates to 1852, holds an unlikely thread of American military history. Buried here are John Gonzales and Joseph Mendez, natives of Spain who came to Indianola in 1858 as caretakers for a shipload of camels the U.S. Army had imported in its famous experiment to use the animals for frontier transport. The cemetery served the vanished port communities of Magnolia Beach and Indianola and took its name from the Zimmerman family, tied in by marriage.
Why it matters
The graves link an ordinary Texas cemetery to the U.S. Army Camel Corps, one of the strangest chapters of westward expansion, and to the immigrant caretakers who made that experiment run.
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Related people
- · John Gonzales
- · Joseph Mendez
- · August Zimmerman
Related events
- · U.S. Army Camel Corps experiment
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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