The most striking feature of the Round Rock Slave Cenetery is the utter lack of tombstones here, just a few hand-hewn local rocks scattered haphazardly mark the graves of the formerly-enslaved men and women buried here. A state historic marker explains the history here as follows:
"SLAVE BURIAL GROUND
In Old Round Rock Cemetery
Near the gravesite of outlaw Sam Bass, one-half acre of Old Round Rock Cemetery was set aside for slave burials. Enclosed by cedar posts and barbed wire, sites are marked head and foot with large limestone rocks. Some rocks are hand-grooved with names and dates. White graves here are dated as early as 1851. The first marked grave of a freed slave is dated 1880. Although there are 40 to 50 known burial sites of freedmen and the burial ground is still in use, no interments of former slaves occurred after the turn of the century."
From the Williamson County Historical Society: (
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"This cemetery in located in the Northeast corner of the Round Rock Cemetery in a grove of trees, but the brush has been cut and you can easily walk through it. There are more field stones for grave markers than marked gravestones. A number of gravestones have been broken to pieces and at least one can't be read. There is a pile of discarded broken gravestones and footstones, none of which had enough parts to determine if there were identifiable gravestones in the pile.
Slave Cemetery (Summary) 3-1-79
THE OLD ROUND ROCK CEMETERY
And SLAVE CEMETERY
Supplement and summary by Myreta Matthews
The "OLD ROUND ROCK GRAVE YARD" was established more than 125 years ago. The earliest marked grave is that of Angeline Scott, who was born Dec.12,1840 and died July 31,1951. There are several more stones recording burial dates before 1860. [1]
Since it is known that Round Rock was a thriving, frontier settlement in the early days of Texas,there may have been earlier burials here - possibly unmarked. The first white settlers came and established Kenny's Fort in 1838 [2]. John Harris built his State Coach Inn and Station in 1848-1853 on the Chisholm Trail [3]. Jacob M. Harrell's house near Brushy Creek was finished in 1853 [4] There were other homes established in the 1840s.
This cemetery in Old Round Rock is described in the Deed Records of Williamson County thus: "This tract or parcel of land being part of the J.M. HARRELL HEADRIGHT LEAGUE in Williamson County, on the north side of Brushy Creek and west of Old Round Rock". It was sold to the Cemetery Trustees in three plots.(See Mrs. Ledbetter's narrative).The first plot was bought for $ 81.005, the second for $ 18.00 [6] and the third for $ 15.00 [7].
This League of land was SURVEYED March 16,1841 and is recorded as PATENT No.106 in the Republic of Texas Survey Register,VOL. 1.
Slave Cemetery Matthews (Summary)
The Round Rock Cemetery has been known by several names, according to one source [9]. Among those are - Presbyterian -Sam Bass - and Old Town.
Among names listed in a recent survey, are those of two brothers, who were noted Civil War Chaplains, Rev. Edward Hudson and Rev. John Hudson. [10] These men were Presbyterian Ministers and remained active here after the war ended, and are buried here. This could have been a reason for the cemetery being called by that name. The other two names are rather obvious.
The sponsors of the SLAVE CEMETERY and the authors of the story seem to have provided rather definite proof that the north west corner of the Old Round Rock Cemetery was indeed a SLAVE CEMETERY. Since, no burial records were kept for any part of the "Grave Yard", legend and tradition had to be accepted as reliable evidence. After the Civil War almost everybody was poor and slaves and ex-slaves had neither the means or the education to mark their graves. The earliest date noted in the slave portion of the cemetery is 1880 or about 15 years after the war ended, yet, this final resting place for the loved ones of the "Black Community" persisted and through word of mouth kept its identity.
It is unique in this part of Texas - A SLAVE CEMETERY -There are many negro cemeteries but not any known to be just for slaves. The other reasons for marking this significant plot are valid and worthwhile but this uniqueness cannot be overlooked.
Slave Cemetery by JuliAnne Herrera
One-half acre of the Round Rock Cemetery is made up of a Slave Cemetery. It is near the gravesite of the outlaw Sam Bass. There are about forty to fifty known burial sites of freedmen. The slave burial ground is enclosed by cedar posts and barbed wire. It is very interesting to observe this area of the cemetery because it doesn't look like what we commonly think of a burial ground as looking. The reason one knows the gravesites exist is because of the big wooden sign which reads "Slave Cemetery" that has been placed directly in front of the area. There has also been a rock walk-way installed within the one-half acre that leads to the gravesites (see appendix VI).
The oldest grave in the slave cemetery is dated 1880, or about fifteen years after the Civil War had ended. The name on this grave is not definite, however; there are only thirteen graves that have actually been confirmed in this one-half acre burial site. These graves are marked head and foot by large limestone rocks; some of the rocks are hand-grooved with names and dates. Other graves are just marked by the existence of rocks or maybe an initial or two on the stone. It has been said that most information acquired about this mysterious one-half acre has been done mainly through legend, word-of-mouth and tradition. It seems as though after the Civil War was over, the ex-slaves in the community still did not have the education, "know-how" or means to think about marking their graves in a more sophisticated fashion.
Upon investigating this slave cemetery, we came across an interview done by Murray and Reggie Richardson. The person interviewed was Joe Lee Johnson (1883-1977), a black man whose father had been a slave. The interview was done the same year Mr. Johnson passed away and is as follows:
Mr. Johnson's father was born a slave. His grandfather and father Simon Johnson were owned by the pioneer Fulkes family.
Unlike most of the other black people, the Biel family were buried on their own 15 or 20 acre farm on Brushy Creek.
Some of the Biel family are buried in the "Slave Cemetery." "Julie Dell" told Mr. Johnson stories about slave days. Among the names of the people from the old slave days, which Mr. Johnson recalled having heard about, (both black and white) other than Charlie Fulkes were: the Pruitts, Grahams, Biels, twin brothers Peter Clark and Simon Johnson, Frank Hall, Henna Taylor, Moe Dell, Joe Baker, Jerry Caldwell, Cramon, Jim Mercer, John Mays and Lem Mays. "Miss Rodie" Fulkes seems to have been guardian and helper with mutual concern for Charlie Fulkes and Simon Johnson.
A Pettus family was identified as Methodist rather than Baptist and social lines seem to have been drawn among religious affiliations. As Mr. Johnson recalled...she was associating with Baptist people...I was associated with Methodist.
During "slave time" as Mr. Johnson related "They had what they called "Paddle Rolls"...they talked about run nigger run...the paddle roll'll get you..."
This interview revealed several interesting things. For example, it noted the fact that dimes took the last name of their owners. Thus, their cultural identity by name was taken away. We see this with the twin brothers Peter Clark and Simon Johnson. We also see the handing down or passing on of information by family members, friends, etc. We see the idea of social lines being drawn by affiliation with certain religions as well. The idea that blacks were of a certain religion and the whites were of another was interesting. Fourthly, for a black individual today, this interview serves as a "telescope" back into time and shows him or her just how far the black rape has come. A fifth and most important factor that this interview reveals is the names of slaves. The fact that some of these names overlap with the names of whites buried in the other part of the cemetery gives insight as to who slave owners had been.
The Optimist Club (original sponsors) plotted a map of thirteen confirmed graves and determined who was buried there with [2] dates where possible. The names confirmed on some of the tombstones were Blair, Casey, Caldwell, Williams, Wilson, Oats, Harris, Gault, [3] Bowner, and Kincheloe. As we saw in the interview, the names mentioned by Mr. Johnson were as follows: Fulkes, Pruitt, Graham, Biel, Clark, Johnson, Hall, Taylor, Dell, Baker, Caldwell, Cramon, Mercer and Mays.
An interesting discovery we happened upon were tombstones bearing the names Mercer and Hall, both previously unconfirmed gravesites although they had been mentioned by Mr. Johnson. If you will notice there are no confirmed tombstones for anyone with the last name Mercer or Hall. However, Ted and I did find an obscure limestone rock with the last name Mercer on it (see Appendix VI). We also found a tombstone with the inscription, "Hall's Baby," which is possibly associated with the Hall's in Mr. Joe Lee Johnson's interview (Appendix VIas well).
The slave cemetery can best be described as a unique burial site of significant historical importance. There exists no particular use of space, and there are no signs of kinship ties. The burials just took place as deaths mandated. It is also good to note that during the work and cleaning of the cemetery in recent years, the area hasn't been tampered with or altered in any way (with the exception of vandalism). The work has been responsibly done."