Trinity United Methodist Church Cemetery

Castell was founded in 1847 on the north side of the Llano River by German immigrants whom Count Emil von Kriewitz led from Fredericksburg to a site chosen by John O. Meusebach. In 1852 the Rev. Charles A. Grote held the first church services in the region here, and the town's Methodist and Lutheran churches both date their founding from that year. A post office opened in 1872 on the south side of the river, where the community has stayed. It had seventy-two people in 1972, mainly settlers' descendants, and the same in 2000.

What the plaque says

Trinity United Methodist Church Cemetery The oldest documented grave in this burial ground, that of two-year-old Feodor Leifeste, dates from 1871. Two years later, Carl Lehmberg deeded land to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, setting aside this part of the property for a cemetery. Reflecting the area's German heritage, the burial ground contains both marked and unmarked graves and historically served the Castell, Mason and Llano communities. Burials here include those of German immigrants and their descendants, several ordained Methodist ministers, and veterans of armed conflicts dating back to the Civil War. (2001)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Enchanted Rock State Natural Area — 16 mi
  A dome of pink granite north of Fredericksburg that rises some 385 feet above Sandy Creek, creaks as it cools at night, and has drawn people for thousands of years.
• Fort Mason — 17 mi
  A reconstructed officers' quarters on Post Oak Hill above Mason, standing where the army's stone fort was taken apart by the town that grew up below it.
• Llano County Courthouse Square — 17 mi
  The 1893 Romanesque courthouse on Llano's square, built after a fire at the height of a boom that was meant to make the granite town an iron city.
• Eckert James River Bat Cave Preserve — 24 mi
  A limestone cave on the James River where about four million Mexican free-tailed bats raise their young each summer, kept open to visitors by a family's gift.

More markers nearby

• Castell School — steps away
• German Settlements — 0.4 mi
• St. John Lutheran Church Cemetery — 0.7 mi
• First Known Religious Services in Mason County — 0.7 mi