Cemeteries

Updated 01/14/2013

Anne Shelton, Cemetery Committee Chairman
mailto:AnneCShelton@gmail.com
Committee Members:  Susan Armstrong and Shelby Rulf Cantrell

Webpage by Trevia Wooster Beverly.  treviawbeverly@comcast.net

Introduction

The rich and diverse history of Harris County is reflected in historic cemeteries from the Baytown-Cedar Bayou area to Katy, from Humble to Bellaire, from the Cypress area to La Porte, and all that is within our county line.  From the obscure family plot to the grandeur of Glenwood, these cemeteries tell stories of the forgotten pioneer and the world famous.
     
To paraphrase Ben Franklin, to know the character of a community, you need only to visit their cemeteries. Preservationists, genealogists and historians realize that cemeteries are a significant part of our heritage and should be preserved. The official state designation and historical marker will be just one phase in protecting them from urban encroachment and vandalism.
      
The Harris County Historical Commission (HCHC) offers help by presenting programs, making site visits and evaluations, and guiding individuals and organizations through the Texas Historical Commission’s Historic Texas Cemetery programs.
      
This site is a “work in progress.” Please visit again.

How to Save A Cemetery

Texas Historical Designations & Markers
To date approximately 1,400 Texas cemeteries have attained the official designation of Historic Texas Cemetery. While the HTC designation does not prevent all destructive activities, the official state  recognition will  make people aware of the importance of each of these cemeteries - and in turn create respect and reverence among  the community for preserving these sacred landmarks.
 
How to apply for a cemetery designation and Historic Cemetery markers.
Texas Historical Commission   http://www.thc.state.tx.us/ See the Menu to the left: Cemeteries and then specific items to access.

Texas Cemetery Laws
Found under the Texas Health & Safety Code, Chapters 694–715 are laws that pertain to perpetual care, ownership, dedication, abandonment, petition for guardianship and access, among others.

The Texas State Penal Code regulates criminal mischief, desecration, graffiti and theft. Other possible regulations include the State Antiquities Code and Federal 106 Code.

An easy to use website is Cemetery Law in Texas by Donald Ray Burger, Attorney at Law, at http://www.burger.com/cemlaw.htm.

Harris County Cemetery Listings

At Rest: A Historical Directory of Harris County, Texas, Cemeteries (1822-2001) Including Burial Customs and Other Interesting Facts, With a Listing of Past and Present Communities, Funeral Home and Monument Companies by Trevia Wooster Beverly. (Houston TX: Tejas Publications & Research, 1994; 2001; 2010).
 
Harris County, Texas cemeteries designated by the Texas Historical Commission as official Historic Texas Cemeteries.  Click on Historical Marker Inventory on the HCHC menu.

Website Links:

Texas Historical Commission (click on Atlas) http://www.thc.state.tx.us/

Burial Sites of Harris County, Texas
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~prsmith/alpha_cem_a-f.htm

George Wolf’s Cemeteries of Harris Co, Texas https://sites.google.com/site/cemeteriesofharriscotexas/

(African-American). Descendants of Olivewood  http://www.descendantsofolivewood.org/

(African-American). College Park Cemetery Association http://www.collegeparkcemetery.net/

Glenwood Cemetery  http://www.glenwoodcemetery.org/

Hollywood Cemetery   http://www.hhcemetery.com/

Washington Cemetery  http://www.washingtoncemetery.org/

Dawson  Lunnon Cemetery by George E. Wolf ,Jr. (2010)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2hr3UKm0gU

Find-A-Grave  http://www.findagrave.com/

BillionGraves  http://billiongraves.com/login.php

The Baytown Genealogy Society: http://www.baytowngenealogylibrary.org/

Paul U. Lee Funeral Home Records (1923-1951) as well as a listing of Baytown’s cemeteries.

Cemeteries fascinate some people, and with the advent of digital cameras and UTube, many choose to spend their spare time in documenting them.  Use Google or another server and enter Houston, Texas Cemeteries on UTube – see what you come up with!

 Hints for successful cemetery research
Once located, research the property.  Learn history of the neighborhood. When did it began, or what is the date of the earliest burial? How large is it? Who owns it? Is there a cemetery organization or care group in place?

Cemetery photography: Have you been told that you can’t take gravestone photographs? Is permission required?

     The answer to this question is really basic, but it’s one that just about every genealogist and the taphophile tend to forget. It’s the law of property rights. Any landowner — public or private — has certain rights to control what happens on that land. Even when the land is publicly owned and dedicated to a public purpose, such as a park, the landowner is absolutely entitled to impose time, place and manner restrictions as to what can and can’t be done on the land.

      In the United States, it’s commonly a matter of state law, and state laws may well delegate decision making authority to municipalities or counties. So what’s important to remember here is that every cemetery — even a public cemetery — has the right to set its own rules and those rules will be upheld by the courts as long as they’re reasonable. If you don’t obey the rules, you can be asked to leave and charged with trespassing if you refuse.

          The fact is that restrictions on photography in cemeteries are extremely common. They don’t usually tend to be very onerous — often, it’s nothing more than a limit on the type of equipment used or on taking photos of funerals or persons mourning without permission.  With the increasing use of the grounds as a “free” photographic resource, rather than a burial ground, occasionally advance permission and payment of a fee is required. What does that mean for photography in cemeteries? Especially for those who contribute to Find-A-Grave: http://www.findagrave.com/  Additional permission if you wish to post a photo you’ve taken on the internet may also be required.

     Not every cemetery has restrictions on photography. Many small cemeteries and cemeteries that no longer accept burials do not have an active management to contact to ask for permission. Where there is no office or staff on site to ask, the presumption is that you can photograph.

     But the standard suggestion for photography in any cemetery is good advice regardless: get the rules of the road in advance — know if you need permission, whether there’s a fee, and what the hours are so you don’t accidentally get locked inside the gates.

Symbolism and Iconography
The symbols on a tombstone can not only produce beauty but also lend to personal information about the person’s life. From religious icons to secret society emblems, to images from nature to even the Bible verse inscribed, will lead the researcher to new areas of discovery about the person interred.

Burial and Cemetery Customs
Burial practices and funeral customs change per time period and by cultural, ethnic and religious background. As Doug Milburn (see Bibliography) said, “The multi-layered cultural pluralism of our past is nowhere as evident as in these old cemeteries.”

 TEXAS CEMETERY VISITATION DAYS

1st Sunday in April and 1st Sunday in October

As designated by the 75th Texas Legislature

Senate Resolution 591 – House Resolution 1097

Property Owners' Guidelines

•Visitation Day extends from 9am (or earlier by mutual agreement) until 6pm (or later by mutual agreement). Please unlock your property for visiting descendants by the agreed upon time. If you are unable to be present by the appointed time, please post instructions on how to access the property at the public street entrance for visiting families.

•For visibility, post signage at the public street access to your property. With this signage please post your name or the name of your representative, and how to contact you. Also, you can state any special considerations or conditions for your visitors to observe. You may wish to have copies of these conditions available to visitors.

•By law, descendants have the right to ornamate and decorate gravesite as they see fit. This may include (but is not limited to) flowers, clean-up of the site, erecting or repairing tombstones, and constructing a fence to prevent livestock from entering the grave site. We hope that you might consider allowing extended visitation privileges for major improvements to the site.

•You can lock up your property at the agreed upon time after the guests have left. We appreciate your consideration of access to your property, and will encourage visitors to respect this privilege.

Visitors' Guidelines

•Access by family members is limited to the hours of 9am until 6pm on Visitation Day, and by other days and time accorded by the owner of the surrounding property.

•Access is limited to the burial site and the route to it. Please respect the privacy of the owners and their land.

•Please leave by 6 pm or other times mutually agreed upon, and leave the cemetery as neat (or neater) as when you arrived. Leave no improvements or ornamentation that contradicts the property owner's stated wishes. 

 Bibliography
The printed word of general background, as well as specific to Harris County, will enable the reader to understand and appreciate the final act.

Abbott, Olyve Hallmark. Ghosts in the Graveyard. Texas Cemetery Tales (Lanham MD Republic of Texas Press, 2001).

Beverly, Trevia Wooster. At Rest: A Historical Directory of Harris County, Texas, Cemeteries (1822-2001) Including Burial Customs and Other Interesting Facts, With a Listing of Past and Present Communities, Funeral Home and Monument Companies. Updates bring the listing to 509 cross-indexed listings. (Houston TX: Tejas Publications & Research, 1994; 2001; 2010).

Bondeson, Jan. Buried Alive, The Terrifying History Of Our Most Primal Fear  New York NY: W. W. Norton & Company, 2001).

Carmack, Sharon DeBartolo. Your Guide to Cemetery Research (Cincinnati OH: Betterway Books, 2002).

Fairchild, Louis. The Lonesome Plains. Death and Revival on an American Frontier (College Station TX: Texas A&M University Press, 2002).

Harvey, Bill.  Texas Cemeteries (Austin TX: The University of Texas Press, 2003).

Jordan, Terry G. Texas Graveyards (Austin TX: The University of Texas Press, 1982).

Jordan, Terry G. with John L. Bean, Jr., and William M. Holmes “Landscapes of the Dead,” Texas (Boulder CO: Westview Press, 1984).

Keister, Douglas. Stories in Stone, A Field Guide to Cemetery Symbolism and Iconography (New York: MJF Books, 2004).

Meyer, Richard E., ed. With a Foreword by James Deetz. Cemeteries & Gravemarkers, Voice of American Culture (Ann Arbor MI: U-M-I Research Press, 1989).

Milburn, Douglas. Our Ancestors’ Graves: Houston’s Historic Cemeteries (Houston TX: Houston Public Library, 1980).

Powers-Douglas, Minda. Cemetery Walk: A Journey into the Art, History and Society of the Cemetery and Beyond (Bloomington IN: AuthorHouse Publishing 2005).

Pearson, Mike Parker. The Archaeology of Death and Burial (College Station TX: Texas A&M University Press, 1999).

Puckle, Bertram S. Funeral Customs (Forgotten Books, 2008).

Sloane, David C. The Last Great Necessity: Cemeteries in American History (Baltimore MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991).

Strangstad, Lynette. A Graveyard Preservation Primer (Walnut Creek CA: Altamira Press, 1995).

Turner, Suzanne and Joanne Seale Wilson with phtography by Paul Hester. Houston’s Silent Garden. Glenwood Cemetery, 1871-2009 (College Station TX: Texas A&M University Press, 2010).