Old Cemetery on the Hill

The plaque speaks of colonists and soldiers; the headstones also record the people who ran the town's mail. John Ross, whose stone says he came from Ireland in 1837, served as San Patricio's first postmaster from 1848 to 1850 and died in 1857. James McGloin followed him, though his own stone is only a memorial. Eliza A. Sullivan, born in New Jersey, kept the post office for the Confederacy from 1862 to 1864 and later ran a boarding house. John Geraghty, elected in 1836 as San Patricio's first representative in the Republic of Texas Congress, lies here too.

What the plaque says

Old Cemetery on the Hill This cemetery is believed to have been used for generations by Indian tribes and Mexican settlers who lived in this area previous to Anglo colonization. Following the establishment of San Patricio de Hibernia in 1830 by empresarios John McMullen and James McGloin, the colonists continued to use the old cemetery on the hill. According to local oral tradition, early graves in the cemetery were marked by wooden crosses and stones bearing Spanish and English inscriptions. Among those interred here are Lt. Marcelino Garcia, who as killed at the battle of Lipantitlan in 1835. Also buried here are soldiers who died in the battle of San Patricio on February 27, 1836; James McGloin, whose grave was never marked; victims of diseases such as scarlet fever; men killed fighting duels; and many early settlers and their descendants. After a new cemetery was consecrated at San Patricio by father Antoine Maury in 1872, the old cemetery on the hill was used infrequently. The old cemetery was neglected for many years until restoration efforts were begun in the 1960's. Some tombstones were destroyed or lost over the years, but the historic graveyard is now maintained. (1990)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lipantitlán State Historic Site — 3.5 mi
  Five undeveloped acres on the Nueces named for the Lipan Apaches who camped here, where Mexico built an earth-and-rail fort that Texans took early in the Revolution.
• Lake Corpus Christi State Park — 9.8 mi
  A lake park in the South Texas brush country above Mathis, on a reservoir of the Nueces, with a Civilian Conservation Corps refectory and more than 200 bird species.
• Texas State Aquarium — 25 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.
• Art Museum of South Texas — 25 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.

More markers nearby

• In Memory of Captain Thomas K. Pearson — steps away
• Old Dougherty House — 0.7 mi
• Saint Patrick's Catholic Church — 0.7 mi
• Battle of San Patricio — 0.8 mi