Thomaston Cemetery

The Handbook of Texas describes the town this cemetery served as divided as well as busy. Methodist, Presbyterian and Baptist churches were established there, and a Black Baptist church was still active in 1962. White and Black schools were kept separate until both closed and students were bused to Cuero. The Handbook notes that Mexican and Black cemeteries lie nearby, so the roughly 283 graves the plaque counts are one part of the community's record, not all of it.

What the plaque says

Thomaston Cemetery Thomaston was established as De Witt County's first railroad town in 1872, with much of the land for the townsite donated by John P. and Mary M. Lockhart Wright. Land for this cemetery was given in 1886 by John P. Wright, and his widow (second wife, Margaret Rankin Calliham Wright) donated an additional lot in 1917 to adjoin the cemetery on the north. There are approximately 283 graves located in the cemetery. Early graves were marked with wooden boards, which were replaced by concrete blocks about 1946. The earliest marked grave is that of an infant, George E. McDonald (October 1, 1870 - March 8, 1871). Also buried here are John P. Wright (October 29, 1829 - June 12, 1897), his first wife, Mary Melvina Lockhart Wright (Sept. 21, 1841 - Feb. 16, 1875), and his second wife, Margaret Rankin Calliham Wright (Feb. 5, 1847 - Feb. 15, 1921). Headstones in the cemetery also mark the graves of veterans of the Civil War, World War I, and World War II. The Thomaston Cemetery Association was formed in the 1930s, and is responsible for maintenance of the cemetery. The original fence was replaced in the 1940s with a chain-link fence. The cemetery serves as a reminder of early Thomaston history. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum — 11 mi
  A cattle-country museum in Cuero's 1903 Knights of Pythias Hall, telling the Guadalupe Valley's 1866 drive north and the Sutton-Taylor feud that bloodied DeWitt County.
• Museum of the Coastal Bend — 16 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 — 16 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.
• Fannin Battleground State Historic Site — 22 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

• Thomaston — 0.2 mi
• Burns Station Cemetery — 4.3 mi
• Arneckeville — 7.0 mi
• Hephzibeth Looker Taylor — 7.2 mi