GRANT UPDATE
Crosses, Angel Wings, and Seashells:
Historical Cemeteries of Atascosa County
By V. Kay Hindes
"Manuel Esparza, VR
born October 19,
1830, died August 15,
1886, Survivor of the
Siege of the Alamo,
March 6, 1836". So
reads the epitaph of
Atascosa County pioneer
settler, Manuel
Esparza, buried in the
family plot known as
the Esparza-Rodriguez
Cemetery (photo at
right). Located near
the small community
of San Augustine,
founded by the
Esparza family in the
1860s, this cemetery
is one of 43 identified
and recorded during
the course of the rural survey of cultural
resources conducted in Atascosa County.
Generously supported by grants from the
Texas Historical Foundation, with additional
funding from the Certified Local
Government Program of the Texas Historical
Commission, the Atascosa County
Historical Commission has documented
this and other significant cemeteries in the
county. The work was conducted by Ralph
Newlan, and Newlan and Knight Associates
Inc., with the assistance of the Atascosa
County Historical Commission.
Property types for the Atascosa County
cemeteries can be considered to be based
on ethnicity, family relationships, and religious
affiliation (or lack of). Rural cemeteries
(and their numbers) documented in
Atascosa County include one isolated
burial, 28 small private as well as large
extended family plots, seven institutional/
religious (church) associated cemeteries,
and seven cemeteries related to commu
nity development. Forty-two percent of
the cemeteries have Hispanic names, reflecting
the cultural diversity and significant
contributions of many of the earliest
residents of the county.
The Old Rock Church Cemetery, dating
to the mid-19th century, is one of the
oldest documented cemeteries in the
county. Located just south of the presentday
community of Somerset, this burial
ground and its corresponding church was
founded in the 1850s by a group of Baptist
families from Somerset, Kentucky, whose
ancestors had come from the city of the
same name in England. Marked with an
Official Texas Historical Marker, this cemetery
contains the graves of many of the
pioneer settlers of the county. The Rossville
Cemetery, which also has an Official Texas
Historical Marker, was founded on land
donated by J.A. Navarro, the son of Jose
Antonio Navarro, signer of the Texas Declaration
of Independence. Navarro's wife,
Juana C. Navarro was
the first person buried
here in 1874. Several of
the Navarro and Ross
family members are buried
here including
Ranger Captain Tom M.
Ross. Three Civil Warera
Confederate soldiers,
Clemente Galindo,
Enrique Tober, and
Teodoro Alvarez are also
buried at this site.
Locations of the historic
cemeteries in the
county are influenced by
. several factors that include,
but are not limited
to (1) proximity to
early settlements; (2)
proximity to early transportation
routes; and (3) natural topographic
and environmental features. For
example, 16 percent of the cemeteries (with
names such as Shiloh and Campbellton)
are directly related to the early communities
by the same name. Historic corridors of
exploration, trade, and transportation, such
as the El Camino Real (also known as the
Presidio del Rio Grande Road or the Lower
Presidio Road) dictated settlement patterns,
thereby concentrating a number of
community-related cemeteries along these
early routes. Indeed, more than half of the
graveyards are clustered in that portion of
the county transversed by this early road.
The Atascosa County Historical Commission
hopes that the identification of
these resources will lead to further documentation
and designation for these significant
sites. While cemeteries are not
generally eligible for listing on the National
Register of Historic Places, they can
qualify under the following National Reg
20 HERITAGE -SPRING 1996
