This cemetery is in a very nice subdivision. Please be respectful
Galveston County - The Daily News
By Kirk Clark Apri 12, 2004
Wern Cemetery Gets Historic Dedication
The Texas Historical Commission has recently awarded a Declaration of Dedication for the Wern Family Cemetery as a historic cemetery.
This cemetery, which is still owned by the Wern family, is in Lafitte’s Cove Subdivision and contains 10 burials, nine of which are Wern family members. John Robert Wern acquired two 10-acre lots on the ridge in the 1880s; the family lived continuously on this property until 1966.
The first burial, John Jr., occurred in 1918; the last, Ernest Sr., in 1968.
Three of the seven Wern sons were veterans of World War I. August Frederick died in Alsace France in 1918. The Werns were truck farmers and known for their melons and vegetables.
Johanna Boehl Wern was a member of the Boehl family who at one time owned most of the land south of Stewart Road in the Lake Como area and lived until the age of 89.
The cemetery is on what was an overgrown lot with massive oaks. Impacts of Hurricane Ike are still evident several years later behind the eight-foot perimeter fence.
Gary Poltorak, who resides close to the cemetery in the subdivision, and Kirk Clark, local historian, proceeded with cleanup and restoration efforts in 2010, culminating in 2014.
Poltorak added a front access gate, maintains the cemetery area and is fabricating white crosses to mark the graves.
He has also mounted a family history with photographs on a white assembly in front of the cemetery.
The Laffite’s Cove Nature Society, which owns the lot, hired a landscaping company to mow the walkway to the graves and the grassy entrance along Windlass Court.
Kirk Clark, representing Ernest Wern Jr., eldest living descendant of the Wern family, conducted the research and applied for the cemetery designation.
Wern, now 88, wished to see his father’s grave one last time in 2013. With many headstones missing, including his father’s, deep metal detectors were brought in to confirm the location of his father’s grave.
His father, Ernest Wern Sr., is buried next to his mother, Uphie, who was buried in 1933. His father maintained his mother’s bricklined grave until his death 35 years later.
The Wern family survived the 1900 Storm by standing on a kitchen table, and when the waters rose to the level of the house, John Robert Wern knocked holes in the floor to prevent lifting.
With the 12-foot ridge elevation, estimates are that the storm flood level reached 16 feet.
The brick footers on which the house was mounted were discovered in 2011 and now mark the perimeter of the cemetery.
Besides being among the rich cultural history of the Karankawa Indians, the cemetery is on a lot which contains descendants of the third motte of the “Three Trees,” used as a mariner’s landmark in early times, and subject of much lore with both Jean Lafitte and Gen. James Long.
It was Long’s men who battled the Karankawa on the ridge in 1821 in the vicinity of the “Three Trees.”
Now that the cemetery is certified as a historic cemetery by the state, a state marker will be applied for to officially recognize the location.
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The sign outside a locked gate tells the story of the Wern Family
Pioneer Wern Family Cemetery
Like thousands of others, the Wern family courageously left Germany to seek better opportunities in the New World. The original Wern immigrants, John and Dora Wern, settled in Galveston (3511 Sealy Ave.) just prior to 1870. John Wern was a ship’s carpenter and served as carpenter aboard the steamer Bayou City in 1864. This occupation he continued until his death.
John Robert Wern, born in 1857, was one of the 10 children of John and Dora Wern. In the mid-1880s, he purchased 10-acres lots 27 and 18 in Trimble and Lindsey Section 3 from Isadore Dyer. These lots were bounded (app.) by Cove Land to the west, to the south by a line just south of the cemetery lot, to the east by the canal just east of Windlass Ct., and to the north by Moyenne Pl. Road
In 1881, he married Johanna Boehl, whose pioneer family owned land south of Stewart Rd. and just east of 13 Mile Rd., where Pirates Beach West is now. John and Johanna went on to raise a family of 9, in sequence: Elise Marie, John Jr., Frederick (Fred),William, Antone (Tony), Ernest, August Frederick, Louis Bernard, and Anna.
The Werns were primarily farmers. They also ran dairy and beef cattle, shot ducks, and fished. The Werns used trash fish and seaweed to fertilize their crop land and raised melons and vegetables.
John and Johanna’s first family home was just a few yards north of this markers. As the family expanded, some members lived in a second house, where the Hamilton kennels are located immediately to the west and across what is now a canal and Cove Lane. The Werns sold th land to John Hamilton, a friend, in 1953, who then allowed the Werns (Mother Johanna, Elise, Fred, and Tony) to live on the property until their natural death.
This cemetery holds the remains of 10 Wern family members, including John Robert (1857-1924) and his wife Johanna Boehl (1861-1951) and, in order of death, the children: John Jr., (1918), Louis Bernard (1928), Elise (1954), Antone (1958), Fred (1966), and Ernest (1968). Uphie (1933), a Slanton and first wife of Ernest, is buried in the cemetery. By the time of his death, Ernest was living just east of Sweetwater Lake, but permission was given for him, as the last member of the first generation, to be buried here. The cemetery also holds the remains of Sidney Winter (1957), a family friend. The cemetery does not hold the remains of August Frederick, who died in 1918 while in Europe during WWI, and was buried in France. A memorial plaque was placed at 3000 Broadway in 1989 in memory of August Frederick and the other WWI military who died in action. Tony and Fred also served in WWI. The most recent Wern family member to be buried here (in 2017) is Arthur Garrett Wern, the great grandson of John and Johanna.
This cemetery has been officially designated as a Historic Texas Cemetery