Wharton Cemetery

William G'Laspie Wharton's half century as a deputy served an office as old as Texas government. Every Texas constitution has provided for a sheriff, the successor to the alguacil of Spanish and Mexican rule. The Constitution of 1876 made the sheriff an elected officer in each county serving two-year terms, lengthened to four years by a 1954 amendment. The sheriff keeps the peace, serves writs and processes of the courts, seizes property after judgment, enforces traffic laws on county roads and runs the county jail; in counties of fewer than 10,000 people he may also assess and collect taxes.

What the plaque says

Wharton Cemetery One of the earliest settlers in Kerr County, William Watson Wharton (1799-1871) purchased 640 acres when he came here in 1857 with his wife Thankful (1803-1885) and their three sons. The family's cabin stood near this cemetery. Wharton's is the oldest marked grave in the plot. Among other graves are those of his wife, his sons William G'Laspie (1841-1919), deputy sheriff of Kerr County for over 50 years, and David Newton (1846-1938), and several grandchildren. Other pioneer settlers buried here include members of the Tatum and Love families. Wharton descendants maintain the site. (1977) Incise in base: Marker Sponsor: Descendants of David N. Wharton

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Schreiner Mansion — 5.8 mi
  The 1879 downtown home of Charles Schreiner, the Alsatian-born merchant, banker and rancher whose store and mohair trade built Kerrville.
• Treue der Union Monument — 11 mi
  An 1866 German-language monument in Comfort over the graves of Hill Country Unionists killed at the Nueces in 1862, its flag of thirty-six stars kept at half-staff.
• Frontier Times Museum — 17 mi
  A museum built of fossils, petrified wood and cave formations in Bandera, holding a printer-historian's collection of frontier relics and oddities.
• Old Tunnel State Park — 19 mi
  A railroad tunnel abandoned in 1942 that now shelters up to three million Mexican free-tailed bats, who fly out each evening from May through October.

More markers nearby

• Texas Lions Camp — 2.4 mi
• Brown Cemetery — 3.0 mi
• Rising Star Lodge No. 429, A.F. & A.M. — 3.9 mi
• Center Point United Methodist Church — 4.1 mi