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SOME HISTORY OF SAN MARCOS CITY CEMETERY CHAPEL
By TULA TOWNSEND WYATT
The San Marcos Cemetery is situated on land that
was originally in a grant made to Thomas Jefferson
Chambers, early Texas surveyor and entrepreneur, by
the Republic of Texas in 1836. The Chambers Estate sold
this particular tract on May 3, 1866, to Judy Camp, later
Mrs. Shadrack Dickson. On April 5, 1876, Judy Dickson
and husband Shadrach Dickson, for the consideration of
"$300.00 in silver coin" sold this land to the City of San
Marcos Cemetery Association Board. This board con-
sisted of Major Edward Burleson (1826-1877), L. W. Mit-
chell, the Rev. W. J. Joyce (1828-1918), Wallace Carna-
han, E. P. Reynolds (1840-1905), and Major W. O. Hutchi-
son (1834-1900).'
The existence of the cemetery prior to the date of
the formal acquisition of the land is proven by the grave-
stones surviving from an earlier period. First known bur-
ial (as shown by a dated gravestone) was that of a Mr.
Major Rogers (Aug. 29, 1853-May 16, 1875). There had
been an older cemetery in the town; this location was
considered more suitable, however, and the burials were
transferred to the new area after the formal purchase.
The new cemetery was more remote from the homes
and church buildings of the town than the earlier one
had been, however, and the need for a chapel in the
cemetery became apparent. Graveside rites were not
considered sufficient in the cases of many of the burials,
and as there was quite a distance to be traveled by
horsedrawn vehicles, a trip to a church building and then
a second trip to the cemetery might consume the better
part of a day for the people attending the funerals held
in the town.
Another factor that possibly governed the building
of the cemetery chapel was the prevailing fashion of
the day. Cemetery chapels were in use in many parts of
the nation, especially in the South and Southwest, where
favorable weather conditions prevail for most of the year,
and the chapels were practical. That the chapel was in
use by the 1890s is proven by a newspaper article that
appeared in the IIa Con/,'y iNies for April 13, 1894:
Decoration Day. . . will take place at .the Cemetery Chapel
on Wednesday, 18th inst. . . Everybody who has kindred
or friends sleeping in the silent city of the departed are
urged to bring flowers and strew upon their graves and other-
wise take part in the exercises of the occasion ....
It is not known who contracted the work of building
the chapel, nor who designed it. It seems likely that
some citizens planned this chapel after having seen
one in Austin, Houston, or some other town, and that
they took a photograph to a good carpentry contractor
and let him plan the bill of lumber and the actual con-
struction. No doubt the directors of the Cemetery As-
sociation directed the work.
The structure as it was originally built and as it
survives today follows the pattern of Christian churches,
the cruciform pattern. It is very unadorned and simple.
The vertical member of the cross, which forms the main
hall of the chapel, is 46 feet 6 inches in length and 16
feet 6 inches in width. The horizontal member, or wings
of the main hall, measures 36 feet 6 inches by 16 feet
and 6 inches. The four 16182-foot faces of the intersecting
members form the gable ends of the framing for the
high-pitched roof. At the ground level, each of these
gable-ended faces is site of a pointed archway or en-
trance to the chapel. The long hall has three similar,
but smaller, arches on each side, or six arches; the
Hays County Deed Records, Deed Book M, page 245.
Genealogical Society of San Mar:o,,, vertical files.
Gravestone in the San Marcos Cty Cemetery, as surveyed on June 3,
1964, by the Hays County Historical Survey Committee.
Files of Tuia Townsend Wyatt, Sari Marcos, Texas_
James Early, 6 ,, A,,i ,al . , , i.tc .tr e. (New York: A. S.
Barnes & Co., 1965) , p. 84-85.
Hays County Deed Records, Deed Book M, page 605.
shorter hall has two smaller arches on each side, or
four additional arches. Wall framing is minimal, of board
and batten construction. A very sharply-pitched sheet-
iron roof covers the structure. The total effect is light,
airy, open. There is so little walling in the structure that
it is virtually an updated version of the well-known brush
arbor of early Texas. The chapel stands in the manner
of a rustic country shrine, unpretentious and useful.
After 1850, builders throughout America are said to
have desired to adopt immateriality in architectual
styles. "The immaterial quality of the Gothic had seemed
to many Americans to qualify it as the only style suit-
able for Christian worship", and Sir Walter Scott is said
to have fostered this idea. In the mid-19th century, both
Europeans and Americans believed that Gothic styles
came from the prevalence of fir trees in the North where
the Goths had lived, and that somehow the shapes of
pointed firs were being imitated in the sharply pitched
roofs and the pointed arches of Gothics buildings....
Americans began to have their homes and estates land-
scaped by artists whose tastes leaned toward the
Gothic, and the cemetery chapels that thereupon came
into vogue seem to have borrowed the same romanti-
cism of style.
The materials for this structure were easily available
in any town of the size and prestige of San Marcos at
any time in the 1876-1890 era, so the materials used in
the chapel give us no clue to the actual building date.
The style is so primitive that the chapel may even have
been erected by volunteer labor, enlisted by the Ceme-
tery Association members-indeed including those mem-
bers, or some of them.
No alterations have been made to the original
building, except that the old-fashioned benches and
some of the internal features seem to have been worn
out. (Since the benches were very hard and uncomfort-
able, the persons who recall them are delighted that
they are no longer in the chapel; chairs owned by the
undertaker are in use when the chapel serves for pro-
grams today.) Throughout its 80-odd years of existence,
the chapel has been kept painted and in good repair.
On May 31, 1924, the San Marcos City Cemetery Associa-
tion sold the cemetery and the chapel to the City of
San Marcos. The improvements are maintained today
by the city government.
A history of the San Marcos Cemetery is appended
to this paper, and the history of the city government is
also appended, together with photographs of the ceme-
tery chapel as seen from all sides.
The Hays County Historical Survey Committee seeks
to have this structure declared a "Recorded Texas His-
torical Landmark" for the reason it appears to be a
rarity in later-20th century Texas--one of a very few sur-
vivors in existence today. It has historical significance
in its community, and the older citizens who revere the
social customs and historical background of the com-
munity wish to educate the young on the significance
of the quaint structure.
The funerals of many Civil War, Spanish-American
War, and World War I veterans were held in this chapel,
as well as the funerals of persons who died outside the
immediate community and were not closely associated
with any church in San Marcos.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Early, James. 1( ,intii an d A, i. in A iti tr, New York:
A. S. Barnes & Co., 1965.
Genealogical Society of San Marcos. Vertical Files.
Hays County Clerk. Deed Records of Hays County.
Hays County Historical Survey Committee. Vertical Files.
Wyatt, Tula Townsend. Personal Files.