Old City Cemetery

The townswomen on this plaque took over ground that had been left to livestock. Before the 1870s the burial ground was rarely mowed, and hogs and cattle grazed among the graves, damaging markers. The founders met at the Union Church, and within two years they had sold $2,531.51 in plots, enough to replace the wooden fence with an iron one fitted with hitching posts. They set Decoration Day on the third Thursday in April, when businesses and schools closed. The association kept none of its money and served until the late 1970s, when the city took over.

What the plaque says

Old City Cemetery Used for burials by 1840, this site was deeded by J. S. Lester to trustees who conveyed it to La Grange after incorporation of the city on July 3, 1854. Fourteen townswomen on April 17, 1873, formed what was probably the first such organization in Texas when they organized the Ladies' Cemetery Association of La Grange. Mrs. L. W. Moore was the first president. Since that time, this association has maintained and administered city cemetery. Annual decoration day, started in 1874, honors those resting here including many of the pioneers who fought for Texas freedom. (1973)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Monument Hill and Kreische Brewery State Historic Sites — 1.5 mi
  A shared tomb on the Colorado River bluff for the men of the Dawson fight and the black bean lottery, beside the ruins of a German stonemason's spring-fed brewery.
• St. John the Baptist Catholic Church (Ammannsville) — 8.6 mi
  A wooden Carpenter Gothic church built in 1919 after storm and fire took two before it, its dusty-rose interior painted by an artist whose name was lost for decades.
• Saints Cyril and Methodius Catholic Church (Dubina) — 13 mi
  The church of Texas's first Czech settlement, under a sky-blue painted ceiling that was whitewashed in the 1950s and brought back from faint traces by its own parishioners.
• Nativity of Mary, Blessed Virgin Catholic Church (High Hill) — 14 mi
  A red brick Gothic Revival church of 1906 in a German farm settlement, where two San Antonio painters spent 1912 faking marble columns and stone vaults on wood.

More markers nearby

• Fayette County, C.S.A — steps away
• James Seaton Lester — steps away
• Fayette County — steps away
• Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1867 — steps away