Lorena Cemetery

General Grenville Dodge, whose purchase of the townsite land is on the plaque, had a larger career than any one Texas railroad. He served in the Union army and was Ulysses Grant's intelligence chief in the Western Theater. In 1866 he became chief engineer of the Union Pacific and shaped the route of the first transcontinental railroad. During the 1880s and 1890s he served as president or chief engineer of dozens of railroad companies. Late in life he headed the commission that investigated the Army's conduct in the Spanish-American War, which became known by his name.

What the plaque says

Lorena Cemetery The original two-acre tract of this burial ground was set aside for the pioneer settlers of the area by Daniel Aerl, who is interred here. The establishment of the cemetery on December 12, 1881, was in conjunction with the sale of sixty acres of land to financier Gen. Grenville M. Dodge. He had the property platted for the town of Lorena,which developed along a line of his Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad. Dodge named the village for Lorena Westbrook Robertson (1861-1952), also buried here, who was the daughter of local land owner C.A. Westbrook. The first burial at this site was that of Lemuel Crook, the infant son of S.J. and G.S. Crook, who died in 1882. The cemetery was next used two years later for the interment of a nine-year-old boy, Jacky Pool. Other graves include those of pioneer area families, early leaders of the community, and many veterans of military action. Additional land for the cemetery was later acquired from the Westbrook families, and from the family of Walter Evans, Sr. The Lorena Cemetery Association was established in 1914 to provide funds for the maintenance of the site and in 1970 a perpetual care trust fund was set up by the organization. (1981)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Armstrong Browning Library — 13 mi
  A three-story Italian Renaissance library on the Baylor campus built to hold A. J. Armstrong's Browning collection, dedicated in December 1951 and now, by its own account, the world's largest of Browning material.
• Dr Pepper Museum — 13 mi
  The 1906 bottling plant of the Artesian Manufacturing and Bottling Company, built where Dr Pepper outgrew a Waco drugstore soda fountain, now the Dr Pepper Museum.
• Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum — 14 mi
  The official state repository of Texas Ranger memorabilia, opened in 1968 in Fort Fisher Park on the Brazos, named for a Ranger post of 1837 whose site no one has located.
• Waco Suspension Bridge — 14 mi
  A Brazos crossing opened in January 1870 as the longest single-span suspension bridge west of the Mississippi, tolled until 1889, closed to vehicles in 1971 and now walked.

More markers nearby

• Charles A. Westbrook Plantation — 1.2 mi
• Martin Irons — 3.6 mi
• Site of Bruceville Methodist Church — 3.7 mi
• Bruceville Baptist Church — 3.9 mi