PLUMMERS CEMETERY

FOUNDED: Prior to 1898

ADDITONAL NAMES: Mount Calvary

AFFILIATION(S):

• Save Austin's Cemeteries

HISTORY:

Plummers Cemetery is a historically African American, Upper South folk cemetery, containing family plots, handmade markers, and examples of art and craft. Plummers Cemetery was likely established prior to 1898, the death year of Jack Jones, possibly the first person interred in the cemetery with a marker.128 The cemetery may have been known as Mount Calvary Cemetery. No map of grave lots has been located for Plummers, and early twentieth century burial dates appear to be located throughout the site. Some family plots were clearly purchased as a unit and occupied over time, as in the other city cemeteries, but the condition or lack of grave markers makes the development of the cemetery difficult to determine today.

The cemetery is relatively small—only about eight acres in size—and burials have taken place fairly continuously throughout the 20th century and into the present day. Plummers Cemetery contains a variety of handmade, craftsman carved, machine carved, and military grave markers. Many of the handmade markers are poured concrete with inset letters and are notable for the content of the aggregate, which in many cases features large pieces of mica, a stone with high reflectivity, mixed into or pressed into the surface of the concrete.

BCN Contact Information:

Save Austin's Cemeteries

President@SAChome.org

sachome.org

EVERGREEN CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1926 (early cemetery founded in 1891)

ADDITONAL NAMES: Highland Park Cemetery

AFFILIATION(S):

• Save Austin's Cemeteries

HISTORY:

Evergreen Cemetery was established in 1926 by Austin’s City Council for the exclusive use of African-Americans. It includes a portion of an earlier municipal cemetery called Highland Park Cemetery. Today, there are over 12,000 burials at Evergreen.

When you step into Evergreen and walk among the markers, you are surrounded by the people who helped build the community of Austin. Politicians, educators, businesspeople, artists, musicians, veterans, and laborers. The history of our city can be told by learning about the stories of people buried here.

BCN Contact Information:

Save Austin's Cemeteries

President@SAChome.org

sachome.org

WILLIAMSON CREEK CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1863

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

The Williamson Creek Cemetery is one of the oldest historic enslaved cemeteries in Austin, TX. The cemetery was neglected for years with a few volunteers making an effort to maintain the cemetery. The Williamson Creek Cemetery Care Association (WCCCA), since its first organized cleaning in 2020, has taken up the responsibility to care and maintain this cemetery. The WCCA non-profit organization goals are to actively promote, educate, and create awareness about the cemetery's historical significance. They plan to provide resources, workshops, and opportunities for individuals to learn about best practices for cemetery maintenance, historic preservation, and enslave genealogical research. They are dedicated to the preservation, beautification, and respectful upkeep of this cemetery honoring the memories and heritage of those who have passed away.

BCN Contact Information:

Cheryl B Johnson

williamsoncreekcemeterycareass@gmail.com

BETHANY CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1893

ADDITONAL NAMES: BETHANY CEMETERY OF TRAVIS COUNTY, BETHANY CEMETERY OF AUSTIN

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

Bethany Cemetery is located in east Austin on the 1300 block of Springdale Road across from Sims Elementary School. Other than the headstones that bear witness to the people who lived in the Austin community, the land has remained unchanged since the time in 1892; C.W. Jones paid $432.60 for the property that would become Bethany Cemetery.

Whether Mr. Jones had the intent to begin a cemetery for African Americans is unclear. However, during the time of his purchase, two graves of young children were already present on the property. Hellen Moore, an infant, was buried in 1879. Alice Maud Miller, 9 months old, was buried in 1886. Little is known about these two children. Other sources indicate that more burials may be present. The area where the property is located it was known as Hungry Hill.

In 1893, Mr. Jones and his wife, Emma, sold a 4/5ths undivided interest to John M. Holland, William M. Tears, Henderson Rollins and Allen Bradley. These five men formed the Bethany Cemetery Company. Jones was Superintendent; Holland was President; Tears was Secretary; Rollins was Treasurer; and Bradley was Assistant Secretary. These five men responded to a community need. When the Austin cemetery named Oakwood was laid out in 1856, q small section in the northeast corner was designated "for colored."

When the space was filled, as was the section for whites, the cemetery was expanded across Comal Street to the east, but did not include a section for blacks." Like many of the people who would find eternal rest in Bethany Cemetery, Henderson Rollins, C.W. Jones, Allen Bradley, and John Holland were ordinary folks who did extraordinary things. Mr. Rollins was listed in the City Directory as a laborer. C.W. Jones was a plumber. Allen Bradley was proprietor of a meat market on 1108 East 11th Street. John M. Holland was a real estate agent. Only two men, William H. Holland and William M. Tears reached prominence in Texas history.

In 1849, William H. Holland was born in bondage. Being enslaved, he received a college education in Oberlin College. After freedom, William Holland returned to Texas. He worked in Austin's post office, taught school and was elected as a Wharton County representative in the Texas House. There, he wrote and presented the bill for the establishment of Prairie View University. Through his efforts, the bill was eventually passed and today, William M. Holland is recognized as "the Father of Prairie View." Throughout his life, he supported education. During the time he served as president of the Bethany Cemetery Company, William H. Holland helped found the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind Institute for Colored Youth in Austin.

For thirteen years, he served as its president. Later, he began the Friends in Need, an organization that supported African Americans. Two years after founding the Bethany Cemetery Company, William M. Tears became one of Austin's first African American policemen. He served for six years. Then in 1901, he founded the Tears Mortuary, known as the oldest established business in Central Texas. In 1893, Bethany Cemetery was subdivided into burial plots. The Bethany Cemetery officers granted William Tears power of attorney to conduct all sales of burial plots.

The Bethany Cemetery Association is working to save and preserve this historical African American cemetery. Bethany is the first African American cemetery in Austin, Texas. It has many former slaves and at least two known Civil War Soldiers and many early East Austin residents. Presently, the encroachment of development is threatening the cemetery as it is in an area heavy with gentrification and developers.

BCN Contact Information:

Sue Spears

suesprs@yahoo.com

OAKWOOD CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1839

ADDITONAL NAMES: N/A

AFFILIATION(S):

• Save Austin's Cemeteries

HISTORY:

Founded in 1839, and containing over 23,000 burials within 40 acres, Oakwood Cemetery is Austin's oldest municipal burial ground. The first interment was that of an enslaved African American man who was killed while being brought into Texas by enslavers. Early burials were in the western section of the cemetery, near the Navasota gate. When the cemetery was platted in 1866, it included the area segregated by race and socioeconomic status. The Historic Colored Grounds lie on the north side of the cemetery’s main road, appearing as a flat green space with a sparse scattering of 300 gravestones. The monuments exist in various states of disrepair, some slightly visible above the grass line, many face down, and others sinking beneath the topsoil. Records indicate that thousands of named individuals are buried within this area and subsections, but no map exists as to the exact location of the burials. Additionally, early sexton’s ledgers reveal entries of hundreds of unnamed individuals, noting only their race or enslaver’s name, further denying the opportunity for descendants to trace ancestry or burial information.

The Historic Colored Grounds hold the remains of most of the cemetery’s African American burials, both free and enslaved peoples, many of whom settled in Austin’s renowned freedom colonies after the Civil War. Among them are civil rights leaders, educators, cultural icons and religious figures influential on local, state and national scales. Some of these individuals have monuments, but most do not. The City of Austin believes that Austin’s historic cemeteries remain vital for the community to remember its segregated past and how the city has changed since its founding. The segregated grounds of Oakwood Cemetery serve as a site of, and memorial to, the ongoing advancement of civil rights, in recognition of the struggle for Black equity over the past two centuries. The individuals buried in the Historic Colored Grounds were subject to segregation and institutional racism in life and death. This is evident in the poor keeping and absence of historical records compared to the rest of the cemeteries’ burials.

BCN Contact Information:

Jennifer Chenoweth

jennifer.chenoweth@austintexas.gov

https://www.austintexas.gov/department/oakwood-cemetery-chapel