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 1840 Houston City Cemetery Posted by:  Raven
N 29° 46.109 W 095° 22.076
15R E 271056 N 3295481
A marker near the former Jefferson Davis Hospital by Girard and Elder streets near downtown Houston, TX, denoting the original site of Houston's first city-owned cemetery. Almost no trace is left of the old cemetery.
Waymark Code: WMNH9T
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 03/17/2015
Views: 4
The marker text is pretty self-explanatory, but below are some interesting additional factoids related to Civil War casualties interred at this site -- per the " Civil War Album" website: "[...] The marker is located next to the plot of the Super family in the SE corner of the 1840 City Cemetery at 1101 Elder Street Houston, Texas 77007. The Super Family plot is the only plot, other than a section for CSA veterans at the Houston Fire Department maintenance building which remains of the 1840 City Cemetery. The location of the cemetery was near the CSA General Hospital and CSA Camp Lubbock so it is assumed there are literally hundreds of CSA soldiers buried here without any tombstone. The nearby large CSA obelisk to the unknown dead as well as the large bronze tablet on the wall of the 1924 Jefferson Davis Hospital have long since vanished. The [now removed] bronze tablet was inscribed: "In loving memory of our Confederate soldiers, whose sacred dust lies buried in the shadow of this building. The great soul of the South can never forget her heroes so long as liberty, honor and love of country and the heroic deeds of the brave and good are cherished as virtues, and so long will their names live in bright letters in the pages of history. From the earliest dawn of civilization down the corridors of time to the present day, no army of soldiers in any clime or age, ever excelled them in patriotism, valor, chivalry, honor, and devotion to home and country. They have ceased from their fighting, they have finished their labors, and they have entered into the glorious reward that awaits the faithful."
Marker Number: 16008
Marker Text:
On April 8, 1840, the City of Houston purchased five acres in the First Ward from brothers Henry R. And Samuel L. Allen for $750, in order to establish Houston’s first city owned cemetery. A city ordinance passed later that year divided the cemetery into four sections: (1) a "potters field" for criminals, suicides, and persons killed in duels, (2) the "negroes burying ground," (3) the "commons" for "all others not otherwise provided for," and (4) family plots "for sale to the highest bidder." Later sections were created for members of the independent order of odd fellows (I.O.O.F.) and the Masons.
As the only city cemetery in use during a forty-year period, it became the final resting place of many citizens of the Republic of Texas and veterans of the Civil War. Also buried in the cemetery were many victims of Houston’s recurring yellow fever epidemics, the last of which occurred in 1867.
The city discontinued use of the 1840 cemetery when a new cemetery opened on Allen Parkway ca. 1879, and thereafter only burials in existing family plots were allowed. In 1893, the City Council announced plans to move all remains to a new location and build a schoolhouse on the site. However, public outcry prompted an injunction prohibiting the action.
By 1923, this cemetery was neglected and overgrown and very few grave markers were still visible. Jefferson Davis Hospital was built on the site in 1924 and the Houston Fire Department facility was added in 1968. While thousands remain buried here, the only above-ground evidence of the cemetery today is the concrete curbing surrounding the Super family plot in front of the hospital and a small confederate section inside the Fire Department facility.
Historic Texas Cemetery - 2006
Marker is Property of the State of Texas
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