Out in the East End, things were looking pretty grim over at Evergreen Cemetery, 500 Altic. The 14-acre site that dates to 1894 had fallen victim to vandalism and neglect over the years.
In her June 8, 1986, article, reporter Bonnie Britt called it "one of about a dozen small burial grounds Houston has forgotten."
Veterans of World War I and World War II are buried there too beneath giant oaks, cedars and hickory trees. Others at Evergreen who brushed with history include Maude Griffin, the first licensed woman tugboat pilot in Texas, a Houston police officer killed in 1917 when black Union soldiers rebelled at Camp Logan in what is now Memorial Park and John Kane, who was killed by scabs in 1936 during the effort to unionize Port of Houston workers.
Toward the rear of the cemetery that is two blocks south of Harrisburg, an area that was briefly the capital of Texas, and hidden in amid thick brush is a 20-foot tall bronze monument erected by the City Employees Sick and Death Benefit Association of Houston.
Fifty plots were purchased in 1927 by City Employees Union 16578 for the burial of city workers, but records show that only two and maybe three of those sites are occupied. The monument was dedicated in 1929 on Memorial Day by former Mayor Oscar Holcombe in memory of "Faithful City Employees who have been called by the Master."
These days, the cemetery, which is home to some of my ancestors, is in better shape.