Press Release
Date: 24 February 2002
For Immediate Use
Contact: Milton Hawkins, 830-868-9075, mhawkins@tstar.net
Trinity Lutheran Church Cemetery Receives
Historic Texas Cemetery Designation
The
Texas Historical Commission (THC) has designated Trinity Lutheran
Church
Cemetery as a Historic Texas Cemetery.
The cemetery is located on the grounds of
Trinity
Lutheran Church, alongside Ranch Road 1 about two miles east of
Stonewall. The church property is
surrounded on all
sides by the Lyndon B. Johnson State Historic Park, and the cemetery
itself
directly adjoins park land on the north and west.
The
designation, which is reserved for cemeteries that are at least 50
years old
and deemed worthy of preservation for their historic associations,
means an
Affidavit of Designation for Cemetery Purposes has been issued to the
cemetery
and it has been recorded in the Gillespie County Clerk’s office.
“The
designation is a tool that will increase public awareness of these
important
cultural resources,” said Larry Oaks, executive director of THC. “Historic cemeteries serve as directories of
early residents and reflect the cultural influences that helped shape
our
state’s communities,” he added.
The history of Trinity Cemetery is bound up
in the
history of Trinity Lutheran Church, which is celebrating its 100th
anniversary this year.
On Trinity Sunday in 1902, a group of
settlers held an
organizational meeting in the Albert Schoolhouse and decided to found
an
Evangelical Lutheran Congregation to be called Evangelical Lutheran
Trinitatis-Gemeinde zu Albert, Texas.
At another meeting later that year, participants decided to
build the
church on its present site beside the Pedernales River.
The men of the community built the church, which was formally dedicated on the second Sunday in October of 1902. The congregation grew rapidly, and in 1903, planning was already underway for a new, larger church. In addition, church records indicate that a cemetery “was to be laid out near the church” on a 2 ½-acre plot bordering the church grounds on the west.
A May 31, 1904, deed records the purchase,
for $60, of
the additional land. The deed must have
been drafted well after the parties had reached agreement, for the
cemetery had
already been dedicated by February 23, 1904, when Mrs. Friedrich
Arhelger, nee
Bertha Behrens, became the first person to be buried in the Trinity
cemetery.
The second church was completed in June of 1904 and dedicated on July 31, 1904. The cornerstone of the present church was laid on February 14, 1928, and the church was dedicated on May 20, 1928. An Official Texas Historical Marker was dedicated on September 16, 1990.
At present, the
cemetery contains
309 graves. Among these are the graves
of twenty-four veterans, including one, Private Ernest F. Knoll, who
was killed
in battle during World War II.
Over the years,
changes have been
made in the cemetery. In 1935, workers
leveled the cemetery by raising graves on one side and lowering them on
the
other. In the beginning, graves were
dug by hand, but in 1953, that responsibility was turned over to the
funeral
homes. Fences have been erected and
replaced, most noticeably in 1968 by the nine-foot game fence the Texas
Parks
and Wildlife Department erected on the west side.
In 1968, the
congregation accepted
a proposal to name a cemetery committee and establish a cemetery fund
in order
to make the cemetery self-supporting.
The interest from that fund is used today to maintain the
cemetery. The proposal states that “free
grave space”
will be provided for each active member of Trinity Lutheran Church.
A guideline approved
in 1971
requires that graves be dug “to the depth of 5 ½ feet due to the
possibility of
the river overflowing its banks and washing topsoil away.”
In 1983, the congregation considered a
proposal to discontinue the use of curbing on future grave plots, and
in 1986,
the congregation voted to have two sections in the cemetery, one with
tombstones and curbing, the other with ground-level markers only. In 1995, the Council voted to end the policy
of selling cemetery plots to non-members.
Today, in accord with the
By-Laws of Trinity Lutheran
Church, the Cemetery Committee is responsible for the operation of the
cemetery. The Committee, which consists
of four church members appointed to four-year terms by the Congregation
Council, is governed by the Cemetery Proposal of 1968 and any
amendments to
that proposal made by the congregation.