Smithwick Cemetery

Noah Smithwick, whose mill gave the place its name, was a blacksmith from North Carolina who reached Texas in 1827. Austin's colony banished him in 1830 for helping a friend escape. He was back to fight at Concepcion and rode with the rangers, and in 1853 he paid $5,000 for the mill the Mormons had built near Burnet before starting a new one on Hickory Creek. A Unionist, he left for California on April 14, 1861; secessionists later murdered his nephew. His memoir, The Evolution of a State, came out in 1900.

What the plaque says

Smithwick Cemetery The history of this community cemetery dates to 1854 when 18-year-old Rebecca Chambers died and was buried here. Rebecca, who reportedly was ill while traveling past here with the family of her sister and brother-in-law, Nancy and E. G. Evans, asked to be buried on this flower-covered hillside. While the land was vacant public domain several other burials took place. There are about 65 early graves marked only by rocks. The cemetery site became part of the 160-acre survey of A. J. Stanford and was patented in 1857. The burial grounds were used by early settlers of Hickory Creek, Elm Grove, and Smithwick's Mill. The Smithwick Cemetery Association was formed in 1930. Additional land was added to the site over the years, a caretaker was hired, and improvements were made to the site, including a tabernacle and fencing. The association continues to maintain the site. Among the 600 burials here are 5 unknown graves reinterred from the South San Gabriel River area in 1974 by the U. S. Corps of Engineers, and veterans of the Civil War, the Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, and the Korean War. (1997) Incise on back: Researched by: Doris M. Henry

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge: Doeskin Ranch — 5.7 mi
  A free federal refuge north of Lake Travis kept for two songbirds that need old juniper and oak, with trails at the Doeskin Ranch unit near Bertram.
• Longhorn Cavern State Park — 15 mi
  A cave carved by an underground river in the Hill Country, cleared of mud by hand in the 1930s and reached down 52 stone steps on a guided tour.
• Inks Lake State Park — 18 mi
  A state park on a constant-level lake of the Colorado, between Buchanan and Inks dams, with pink granite and gneiss at the water and CCC work along Park Road 4.
• Inks Dam National Fish Hatchery — 18 mi
  A free federal hatchery below Inks Dam on the Colorado, with thirty production ponds that draw birds and a look at how fish are raised from egg to harvest.

More markers nearby

• St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church — 7.3 mi
• Dead Man's Hole — 7.7 mi
• Marble Falls Depot — 7.8 mi
• Marble Falls Factory Site — 8.0 mi