San Felipe de Austin Cemetery

The people buried here changed with the town. By the mid-1840s San Felipe was down to six or seven log houses and a tavern, and in 1846 the county seat went to Bellville. As the original families left, Germans moved in during the mid-nineteenth century. After the Civil War freedmen began to make homes in the community, and Czechs followed late in the century. In the early twentieth century a large number of Mexican immigrants came, as Austin County farms took on more Mexican migrant workers. San Felipe had 177 people in 1890 and 868 in 2000.

What the plaque says

San Felipe de Austin Cemetery San Felipe de Austin was established in 1824 as the community and administrative headquarters of Stephen F. Austin's original Anglo American colony in Texas. The site for the township was chosen by Austin and the Baron Felipe Enrique Neri de Bastrop. The original 1824 Mexican charter for San Felipe de Austin contains a survey which set aside this site for cemetery purposes. Although the earliest documented interment is that of Elisebath J. Eidman in 1846, historical references to earlier deaths in the community suggest burials here prior to that year. The cemetery consists of a fenced Anglo section containing about 370 grave sites and an adjacent, separately fenced, African American section containing an estimated 200 grave sites, at least three of which are known to be those of former slaves. From the time of its establishment in 1824 San Felipe de Austin Cemetery was maintained by the town of San Felipe de Austin until 1966. Since that year the town has added land to the cemetery and transferred its ownership and care to two community cemetery associations comprised of descendants of persons interred here. Many of this area's early pioneers and leaders are buried here. (1993)

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• J. J. Josey General Store — 0.6 mi
• Near This Site Stood a Town Hall — 0.6 mi
• Early Roads to San Felipe — 0.6 mi
• Stephen F. Austin — 0.6 mi