Hebrew Rest Cemetery

Corpus Christi's Jewish families came as merchants. Julius Henry arrived in 1858 and opened a grocery in 1865; Charles Weil came in 1870 and started a general store with his brother-in-law; Simon Gugenheim reached town in 1882 with forty dollars and opened a dry goods store. Before the cemetery, burial meant a long trip. David Hirsch carried his wife's body 130 miles to Gonzales after she died in 1873. The Hebrew Benevolent Association and the cemetery began in 1875, among 45 Jews in eleven families. Temple Beth El was not organized until 1928.

What the plaque says

Hebrew Rest Cemetery This burial ground was established in 1875 to serve the pioneer jewish settlers of Corpus Christi, 55 years before the formal organization of a Jewish congregation in the area. Earlier burials had been in the nearest Jewish cemetery, located at Gonzales (140 miles north). This land was deeded by Captain Richard King, founder of the noted King Ranch. David Hirsch and Emmanuel Morris, who acted as trustees for the Hebrew Benevolent Association, organized the cemetery. Both are buried here. The earliest marked grave is that of Helena Henry, who died in 1878, the infant daughter of Paul and Frederika Henry. Also buried at this site are all the members of the Richman Family, victims of a destructive 1919 hurricane. Prominent early residents of Corpus Christi interred here include grocer Julius Henry, who served as city alderman and postmaster; business and civic leaders Charles and Sarah H. Weil; civil war veteran and merchant M. Lichtenstein; and Simon Gugenheim, a successful area business and philanthropist. In 1961 Temple Beth El assumed control of the cemetery. Still in use, it reflects the proud heritage of the area's Jewish community. (1981)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Mirador de la Flor — 1.2 mi
  Corpus Christi's bayfront memorial to Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, the Tejano singer from this city, killed in 1995 at twenty-three, visited by about thirty thousand people a year.
• Art Museum of South Texas — 1.8 mi
  Philip Johnson's 1972 museum on the Corpus Christi bayfront, joined in 2006 by Ricardo Legorreta's Miller Wing, holding more than 2,000 works mostly from Texas and the Americas.
• Texas State Aquarium — 2.0 mi
  A nonprofit aquarium on the tip of Corpus Christi Beach built around the Gulf and the Caribbean, with the largest coastal wildlife rescue center in Texas behind the exhibits.
• USS Lexington Museum on the Bay — 2.2 mi
  An Essex-class carrier of 1943 moored off North Beach, the Blue Ghost that Tokyo Rose kept reporting sunk, and the Navy's training carrier for nearly three decades after.

More markers nearby

• Galvan Ballroom — steps away
• Kelsey Memorial Methodist Church (Iglesia Metodista Kelsey Memorial) — 0.4 mi
• Antonio E. Garcia — 0.4 mi
• Centennial Memorial Museum — 0.5 mi