Saint Joseph Catholic Cemetery

The town that took in the Gazeta congregation had another name first. The site was called Arenosa, for the creek, with a post office in 1851 and 1852 and again from 1877 to 1883. Rancher Henry Clay Koontz opened a store on Arenosa Creek in 1881. In 1882 the New York, Texas and Mexican Railway opened a station there, and the place was renamed Inez for the daughter of the railroad's president, Count Joseph Telfener. By 1900 Inez had a lumberyard, a bank, a hotel and a Wells Fargo office.

What the plaque says

Saint Joseph Catholic Cemetery A Catholic church and cemetery were established after 1873 at Gazeta (then 1.5 mi. W) on one acre of land deeded by parishioner Frank Garvel (1837-1921). In 1889 the congregation moved to the new railroad town of Inez, reconstructed their church building (2 blks. NE), and dedicated it to St. Joseph in 1890. In August, 1892, Frank and Anna Obsta (1838-1912) Garvel conveyed four acres here for a new cemetery, and reclaimed the land in Gazeta. In October that year, English immigrant John Finnegan (1827-1892) became the first burial here. The eleven burials at Gazeta--with the family names of Andre, Garvel, Konrad, Kutchka, Letts, Obsta, Ortiz, Rena, Scherer, and Schrobacher--were transferred here in November that year. Subsequent burials further indicate the diverse backgrounds of settlers in Inez. By the turn of the century, the town hosted immigrants of Anglo, Czech, German, Hispanic, Irish, Italian, Jewish, and Swiss descent. The burial site of Joseph and Mary Adamski Obsta, Polish settlers at Gazeta in 1858, is not known, but 38 of their descendants are buried here. The family of Czech immigrants Alois (1866-1950) and Rozina Cernota (1852-1949) Andres includes 16 burials of more than 400 marked and others unmarked here. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Museum of the Coastal Bend — 13 mi
  Victoria College's museum of thirteen thousand years on the middle Texas coast, from Clovis hunters and Karankawa potters to La Salle's lost Fort St. Louis and the first ranches.
• De León Plaza — 15 mi
  The central plaza of Guadalupe Victoria, the only predominantly Mexican colony in Texas, founded by Martín De León in 1824 and taken from his family after 1836.
• Half Moon Reef Lighthouse and Linnville — 21 mi
  The last screw-pile lighthouse of the Texas coast, brought ashore at Port Lavaca, a town founded by refugees from Linnville, the port Buffalo Hump's Comanches burned in August 1840.
• Fannin Battleground State Historic Site — 30 mi
  The open prairie east of Goliad where Fannin's retreating column formed a square short of the Coleto Creek timber on March 19, 1836, and surrendered the next day.

More markers nearby

• Saint Joseph Catholic Church — 0.3 mi
• Fort St. Louis — 0.3 mi
• Site of The Johnston-Huston Duel — 7.8 mi
• Bennett and West Ranch — 8.5 mi