Washington Cemetery

Washington Cemetery (HM2B5H)

Location: Houston, TX 77007 Harris County
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Country: United States of America
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N 29° 45.897', W 95° 23.3'

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Inscription
The Deutsche Gesellschaft von Houston, founded in 1875, established the German Society Cemetery in February 1887 by purchasing this property, then located outside the city limits, from the heirs of John Lawrence and Thomas Hart. Twelve-space family lots were sold to Society members for $10 and to the public for $25. It was renamed Washington Cemetery in 1918 due to anti-German sentiment during World War I.

Though headstones of reinterred persons show birth dates as early as 1800 and death dates as early as 1855, the earliest known burial is that of three-year-old Pauline Ottilie Zeitler, on March 31, 1887. As least 15 citizens of the Republic of Texas and immigrants from more than 20 nations lie at rest here. Eighteen lots are owned by fraternal, labor, or veteran groups. More than 7600 persons are interred here, with more added each year.

Also buried here are more than 300 veterans of nine wars, from the Black Hawk War of 1832 to Vietnam, including more than 135 Confederate and Union veterans. Sarah Emma Evelyn (Edmonds) Seelye, aka Franklin Thompson, is noted for writing a book about her service as a man in the Federal Army, 1861-63.

After the last charter expired in 1947, the superintendent's widow and her housekeeper tried to maintain the cemetery, but they did not have the resources needed.



By the 1970s, it was badly overgrown. Concerned Citizens for Washington Cemetery Care (CCWCC) was founded in 1977, cleared away the jungle-like growth, and cared for the cemetery over the next 22 years. In 1997, CCWCC became the first group in Texas legally granted the authority to "restore, operate, and maintain a historic cemetery" under a 1995 Texas law; that authority was transferred to adjacent Glenwood Cemetery in 1999.
Historic Texas Cemetery - 2012
Details
HM NumberHM2B5H
Tags
Year Placed2012
Placed ByTexas Historical Commission
Marker ConditionNo reports yet
Date Added Wednesday, September 5th, 2018 at 11:02am PDT -07:00
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Locationbig map
UTM (WGS84 Datum)15R E 269075 N 3295130
Decimal Degrees29.76495000, -95.38833333
Degrees and Decimal MinutesN 29° 45.897', W 95° 23.3'
Degrees, Minutes and Seconds29° 45' 53.82" N, 95° 23' 18" W
Driving DirectionsGoogle Maps
Area Code(s)281, 713
Which side of the road?Marker is on the right when traveling East
Closest Postal AddressAt or near 2911 Washington Ave, Houston TX 77007, US
Alternative Maps Google Maps, MapQuest, Bing Maps, Yahoo Maps, MSR Maps, OpenCycleMap, MyTopo Maps, OpenStreetMap

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