Jolly Cemetery

John Grey Jolly set up a blacksmith shop and a store at this crossing, and the Handbook of Texas says he also provided land for an early school. Jollyville was founded in 1866 and took his name; residents built a new school in 1878. The county historical commission calls the burial ground a pioneer cemetery and says the Jollys set the land aside. It now lies within an apartment property off Spicewood Springs Road, and it is not a designated Historic Texas Cemetery. Jollyville also reached across the county line into Travis County as Austin grew.

What the plaque says

Jolly Cemetery This pioneer burial ground is a reminder of the area's earliest settlers. It was formally set aside by John Grey Jolly (1825-99) and his wife, Nancy Isabel (Eskew) (1825-1921) -- both buried here -- for whom Jollyville community was named. The earliest marked grave is that of Margaret Evergreen Robinson, who died in 1872. Others buried here include five citizens of the Republic of Texas -- members of the Thomas V. S. Strode family, who settled in this area of the state in 1841. The last burial in the Jolly Cemetery, that of Texas Confederate veteran Charlie Strode, took place in 1929. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• The Round Rock — 7.6 mi
  A table-shaped stone in Brushy Creek gave Round Rock its name in 1854; the Chisholm Trail crossed the creek near it, and Old Town stayed behind when the railroad pulled the town east.
• Mount Bonnell — 7.7 mi
  Austin's old lookout over the Colorado, named by an 1838 traveler, picnicked on by George and Libbie Custer, and reached by a 1939 flight of about 100 limestone steps.
• Harry Ransom Center — 10 mi
  The University of Texas archive where a Gutenberg Bible and the earliest surviving camera photograph are always on view, free, beside the papers of Watergate and the movies.
• LBJ Presidential Library — 11 mi
  A ten-story travertine archive on the University of Texas campus holding 45 million pages from a presidency of civil rights laws, the War on Poverty and Vietnam.

More markers nearby

• Jollyville Community and School — 0.4 mi
• Pond Springs Community and School — 1.2 mi
• Balcones Fault Aids Colonization of Texas — 3.4 mi
• Cedar Chopping in Central Texas — 3.7 mi