The Junior Historian, Volume 20, Number 2, November 1959 Page: 1
32 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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* THE JUNIOR HISTORIAN *
VOL. XX, No. 2 AUSTIN, TEXAS NOVEMBER, 1959THEY BURIED OUR DEAD
by BRUCE KOWERT
Fredericksburg High SchoolMUCH HAS BEEN WRITTEN
about the way that early Texans
lived, how they dressed, how
they amused themselves, how they made
their livings, and even about how they
died. Little, however, has been written
about how they were buried and about
the customs surrounding this final serv-
ice.
As man's way of living on the Texas
frontier slowly changed, so did the cus-
, x. , .
. ?, ',out their towns, in family plots among a
grove of trees on the farms and ranches,
or often by the wayside when pioneers
died en route to new settlement sites.
When the city of Fredericksburg was
laid out by the surveyors, an area of land
was set aside as the "Verein's Cemetery,"
which later became known as the City
Cemetery. It is located in the eastern sec-
tion of the city and is administered by a
board composed of one trustee from each
L-11In 1918 Joe Schaetter provided Fredericksburg with its first "motorized" hearse
toms and circumstances of his burial.
Undertakers and embalmers as they are
known in the mid-twentieth century were
nonexistent in frontier days. Cabinet-
makers from the old country were nu-
merous among the early settlers, how-
ever, and these craftsmen were the logical
persons to construct coffins. In a day's
labor, one of these artisans might turn
aside from a piece of furniture for one
man's home to make a coffin for another
man's burial.
In the Fredericksburg area interment
was by earth burial either in cemeteries
set aside by the colonists when they laidof the Protestant churches in the city. In
1860 the Catholics in the community es-
tablished their first cemetery about two
miles north of town; in 1875 they select-
ed a site for their present cemetery a little
closer to town in the same general area.
Greenwood Cemetery was laid out on the
northeastern edge of town by a private
corporation in 1898.
Consideration for the dead was thus
one of the main concerns of the found-
ing fathers of Fredericksburg. They set
aside plots known as the "Company Gar-
den," the "Company Horse Lots," and
the "Orphaned Children's Land," and
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Texas State Historical Association. The Junior Historian, Volume 20, Number 2, November 1959, periodical, November 1959; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth391541/m1/3/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 2, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.