Antioch Cemetery on Old Black Colony Road near FM 1626 is one of Buda’s oldest historic landmarks. (Photo by Cyndy Slovak-Barton)
by BRAD ROLLINS
Older than either the city of Buda or its predecessor, DuPre, the Antioch Colony near what is now FM 1626 and FM 967 was a refuge for recently freed slaves starting in 1870.
Joseph Rowley bought 490 acres in 1859, more than a decade before the colony’s founding. After the Civil War, he sold land to about a dozen families for $5 an acre and the little community, also called Black Colony, sprang up near Onion Creek. The enclave thrived as a farming town through the 1940s when many families began moving off.
Those who died along the way were buried at the Antioch Cemetery where the oldest tombstone, that of 16-year-old John Bunton, dates from 1880. On Tuesday, the Hays County Commissioners Court authorized the county’s road department to perform one-time maintenance and upkeep at the historic site, including removal of about 10 dead trees lost during the drought of recent years.
“There’s some very old tombstones there and we want to make sure they’re protected and we really feel like our guys will protect them better than a commercial outfit,” said Jerry Borcherding, the Resource Protection, Transportation and Planning department director.
A county crew will complete the work when it does not interfere with other scheduled jobs, Borcherding said. His department did not put a dollar value on the labor but said a bid from a private company came in at $5,200.
“That’s more than what their little group has to spend and we’ll be able to to do it considerably cheaper than that,” Borcherding said.
The county’s participation was initiated by Hays County Historical Commission member Jim Cullen, who chairs the group’s cemetery committee. Volunteers recently mowed tall grass and did other cleanup at the cemetery, Cullen said, but the cemetery association has limited funding and is unable to fund the tree removal itself.
“It’s really looking pretty good right now except for the dead trees. We want to get those removed,” Cullen said.
Antioch Cemetery is one of about 80 known burial sites in Hays County which range from the largest, San Marcos City Cemetery, to single documented gravesites, sometimes without headstones or other markers. Many of what he calls “postage stamp-sized” cemeteries are maintained by private associations that often struggle to keep up with the work.
“This is one of a large number that have relatively limited resources but they’re very, very historical. There are folks buried in there who were born into slavery. That’s really significant to Hays County’s history,” Cullen said.
Winnie Moyer, who is vice president of the Antioch Cemetery Association, said she has been worried about the trees for some time.
“They’re dead from the bottom up. I was afraid they’re going to fall on somebody out there and we’re going to have to bury someone before their time,” Moyer said.
A sampling of historic cemeteries in northeastern Hays County, according to the Hays County Historical Commission. A complete listing can be found at http://www.hayshistoricalcommission.com
BARTON CEMETERY
In 1881, James U. Barton, a citizen of Hays County who lived near the falls of Onion Creek, deeded to Arthur Barton, Henry Breedlove, Thomas Everet, John Y. Stephenson, and D.A. Porter “about three and one-fourth acres of land in consideration of one dollar” along with “the good feelings from my neighbors in the vicinity of Mountain City.” There were at least fourteen burials in this burial site before the cemetery was established in 1881 on present-day FM 1626 near FM 2770.
KLEIN CEMETERY
A pile of rocks is all that marks this cemetery, which is located on the Joe Rogers Ranch on FM 967 outside Buda. Oral history has it that the three bodies buried here are all children of Peter Klein, who fought in the Civil War.
KYLE CEMETERY
Home to the graves of such prominent early settlers as Maj. Edward Burleson and Col. John Bunton, the Kyle Cemetery on Old Stagecoach Road was established on land donated by Col. Claiborne Kyle. The cemetery includes 1,240 inscribed gravemarkers.
KYLE FAMILY PIONEER CEMETERY
Formerly called the Slave Cemetery, it’s unclear if any slaves are buried there. The cemetery is adjacent to the Kyle Cemetery near the homestead of the slave-holding Clairborne Kyle family but none of the graves date to pre-Civil War times. A 1989 survey found 16 tombstones of which the earlies is for the 1873 death of 12-year-old William Davis.
LIVE OAK CEMETERY
Established in the late 1880s by Uhland’s German immigrant founders, this cemetery includes graves of a family wiped out by murder and a mother killed when her house was washed away by flooding, according to the Hay County Historical Commission. It is not to be confused with the Live Oak Cemetery in Travis County where many Buda residents are buried.
NIEDERWALD CEMETERY
About 112 inscribed gravesites make up this cemetery on Texas 21 near the Caldwell and Travis County line. The oldest was buried in 1905.
SKYVIEW CEMETERY
Located on Stagecoach Road near the Kyle Cemetery, the oldest grave in the cemetery dates to 1895. There are more than 170 marked graves including some denotations as simple as stones or wooden crossings.
ST. MICHAEL’S CEMETERY
More than 263 gravesites are located in the Catholic cemetery next to St. Micahel’s Catholic Church in Uhland. It is separated from the Protestant Live Oak Cemetery by a fence. The graves of two children are dated 1887.
ST. VICENTE CEMETERY
More than 227 inscribed gravemarkers comprise this cemetery on Old Stagecoach Road.
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