The Gazette-Enterprise

You can learn a lot about a community by walking through its cemeteries.
In the southeastern tip of Guadalupe County a walk down Eternal Lane in the Concrete Cemetery leads to one of the most picturesque and restful spots around.
The leaves are turning green above the well-kept gravestones, where many county pioneers, veterans and ministers are laid to rest.
But it won’t be at all quiet and peaceful at 10 a.m., Saturday, April 22, when the historic cemetery celebrates its sesquicentennial.
John and Shirley Grammer and other members of the Concrete Cemetery Association have worked long and hard to ensure the 150th birthday party will be a day of rejoicing, celebrating and remembering those buried there.
One of the mysteries of the cemetery is a stonewall encircled plot. For years, no one could tell who was buried there or who built the wall.
One of the rumors said it was the final resting place of a pioneer family that caught influenza or cholera and were buried there with their wagon. Another story said it was the grave of two of the slaves who worked on the plantation, but research showed they were buried elsewhere.
At the sesquicentennial, the secret of who is buried in the stonewall encircled plot will finally be revealed and a monument unveiled.
Much of the history of the cemetery has been researched by Concrete Cemetery historian Shirley Grammer and her husband, John. Many other members of the Concrete Cemetery Association also contributed work and donations for the beautification of the cemetery.
“I feel like I know the people buried here,” Shirley said. “We’ve spent hours and hours talking to people and searching obituaries to find out who is here.”
Shirley said the cemetery began in 1856, when Joel Wooten Newton was the first to be buried in what became the family plot of his brother, James Henry Newton.
James settled in southeastern Guadalupe County just north of La Vernia in 1851 with his wife and eight children. James’ wife, Elvira, died and was buried next to Joel in January 1857. The next month, the grave of James’ mother, Betsy, was added.
The cemetery grew as the family expanded and as community members started using the site, so on Sept. 21, 1875, James officially deeded 2 acres of land for a community cemetery.
The cemetery grew in 1971, when Mrs. Alice Warren Scull donated 3.44 acres. In 1992, her grandson, Dr. Charles Elam Scull III, donated nearly 2 more acres, bringing the size of the cemetery to about 7 acres. The roster of people interred at the cemetery includes about 750 names, including Thomas Applewhite, who fought in the War of 1812 and was a member of the Cibolo Guard, and Thomas Connelly, a Texas Ranger.
The area was called Bethesda when it was first settled in the early 1800s, Shirley said, but gradually evolved to Concrete because the Bethesda school had logs heavily plastered with concrete to make the building less likely to burn. The school was a community center that was also used as a meeting place for the Brahan Masonic Lodge and for several church denominations.
People started referring to it as the “Concrete School,” and the name stuck and extended to the whole area, Shirley said.
The Concrete Cemetery Association members added a new pavilion with chairs and benches and a new arched entrance, erected a veterans memorial and restored deteriorated and missing headstones in the historic Texas cemetery. Grammer is writing a book detailing the history of the cemetery and its families and has placed a list of the people interred there on www.interment.net to help people researching their family roots.
Perhaps the spirits of James Newton and other founding families will gather to enjoy what they began so many years ago, as their descendants and friends pause to remember 150 years of life and death in the Concrete Cemetery.
The Concrete Cemetery is located 2 miles north of La Vernia on Farm Road 775. Tickets for the luncheon following the program are still available through Wednesday, April 19. For more information, call Shirley Grammer at (830) 947-3176 or Helen Mattern at (830) 253-7002.

Share | Save | Mail | Print | Comment

Bringing Life To Your Doorstep Since 1888

A Southern Newspapers publication.