Monument Hill Tomb

Heinrich Kreische, the stonemason who later bought the bluff, built the original crypt in 1848. Two years later he offered the tomb and ten acres to the Texas Monumental Committee for $100, on condition that work on a monument begin within fifteen years; no money was raised, the land reverted to him, and he kept up the grave unpaid. In 1931 Louis W. Kemp threatened to move the remains to the State Cemetery, and local Daughters of the Republic cleared the site and ordered a new granite vault, dedicated on September 18, 1933.

What the plaque says

Monument Hill Tomb In September 1848, the remains of Texans killed in the 1842 Dawson Massacre and the 1843 "Black Bean Death Lottery" were reburied at this site in a sandstone vault. The Kreische family did its best to care for the grave during their ownership of the property, but it suffered from lack of formal oversight. In 1905, the state authorized acquisition of .36 acres here, and the Daughters of the Republic of Texas raised funds for a new cover for the tomb in 1933. During the 1936 Texas Centennial celebration, the 48-foot shellstone shaft with a stylized, Art Deco-influenced mural was erected to mark the mass grave more prominently. Local citizens purchased 3.54 acres as a donation to the state for parkland in 1957. (2002)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas Wendish Heritage Museum — 17 mi
  A museum at Serbin of the Wends, a Slavic people from Lusatia whose congregation of nearly 600 crossed on the Ben Nevis in 1854, losing seventy-three to cholera on the way.
• Bastrop State Park — 29 mi
  The westernmost loblolly pines in the United States, cut off from the East Texas forest by a hundred miles of post oak, burned almost entirely in 2011 and growing back.

More markers nearby

• Kreische Complex — steps away
• Fayette County — 1.6 mi
• Fayette County, C.S.A — 1.6 mi
• James Seaton Lester — 1.6 mi