Essay about Jackson Cemetery

'Jackson Cemetery, Travis County, Texas — Its Value as an Historical Landmark.' Covers creation of the cemetery, lot purchase, and interview material gathered by Melissa W.

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_The following text was extracted via OCR from the digitized scan held by The Portal to Texas History (UNT Libraries). OCR can introduce errors, especially on handwritten material; the canonical record links to the original scan._

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ri Cemeterie. Eane s "Area -1 Jackson Cemetery JACKSON CEMETARY, TRAVIS COUNTY, TEXAS Its Value as an Historical Landmark Jackson Cemetary is a half-acre site situated in the Los Lomas subdivision inside the boundaries of West Lake Hills, an incorporated city just to the west of Austin. Los Lomas is a 108-acre tract developed by Manorwood Development Corporation of Bryan, Texas. Jackson Cemetary, which contains the graves of some of the earliest Black settlers in Travis County and their descendents, has been recorded as an archaeological site at the Texas Archaeological Research Laboratory with a designated trinominal number of 41TV900. Part of Los Lomas containing the Jackson Cemetary was known as Belle Hill in the late 1800's and early 1900's. It is in an area which now includes the Eanes Independent School District. According to Eanes: Portrait of a Community, Belle Hill was the home of "Aunt" Cindy Jackson who "served as midwife to white and black families in the area. Aided by her daughter, Nancy, she delivered all of the Tucker and Short children, all eight of Jess and Lizzie Plumley Teague's children including Tiny Teague Roberts, and eight of Edna and Lytton Pierce's nine children. Edna Pierce remembers what a new mother had to go through in those days whose house was three or four hours from Austin by wagon and team."' Upon purchase of the 108-acre tract of land, Manorwood Development orporation contracted with Epsey, Huston and Associates, Inc., engineering and environmental consultants, of Austin, Texas, to locate and define the boundaries of cemetary reservations mentioned in two 1885 deeds; therefore, much of the research for this document comes from documentat bn found and interviews conducted by Melissa W.

EANES HISTORY CENTER

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page 2, Jackson Cemetary - Voellinger of Espey, Huston and Associates.2 At this point some history of the property's ownership seems in order. The first reference to the property which nowcontains the cemetary was a Spanish Land Grant of one league issued to Henry P. Hill on July 14, 1835. This document is on file in the General Land Office Spanish Archives (Vol. 126, p. 337). Henry P. Hill was an absentee land owner residing in North Carolina and portions of his grant were sold each year to pay real estate taxes. The land then went as part of a 200 acre sheriff's sale to R.N. Elgin on July 13, 1851, for payment of overdue taxes (Travis County Deed Records, Vol. 10; p. 183). In May of 1868 Alexander Eanes acquired 200 acres of land from R.M. Elgin (Travis County Deed Records, Vol. T, p. 303) and subsequently Frank Swisher purchased 5 . acres of the 200 acres from Ale ander Eanes on December 3, 1870 (Vol. U, pp. 18-19). Fifteen years later, on August 17, 1885, Frank and Betty Swisher conveyed to Milton and Lucinda Jackson 15.5 acres (Travis County Deed Records, Vol. 63, pp. 580-581). On the same date the Swishers also conveyed to Lucinda Jackson and her daughter, Malinda Woods, 10.5 acres, less about one-half acre of said land set apart for a burying ground for the neighborhood. (Travis County Deed Records, Vol. pp. 581-582). These two deeds, dated August 17, 1885, are the first references to cemetary reservations although no metes and bounds were presented at that time. Lucinda Jackson is the same "Aunt" Cindy Jackson who served as midwife to so many of the early settler families in the Eanes area. Upon Lucinda Jackson's death the property was conveyed to her five living children: Silas Jackson, George Jackson, Andrew Jackson, Nancy Jones and Mabel McKenzie. The deed records of Travis County then show a transfer of the property in the estate of Nathan Woods to Fred

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r.,pagye 3, uLJrSU ~tUCa Bulian (Travis County Courthouse Deed Records, Vol. 611, p. 404). The property was sold in 1939 to settle his estate and to be divided among his heirs (Travis County Courthouse, Cause Number 28.881). In order to verify the location and existence of the cemetary several people were located by Epsey, Huston and Associates. These individuals were all interviewd by Melissa W. Voellinger of that firm. Jim DeGroot, owner and resident of property immediately southwest of the cemetary area, reported that about twenty years ago there were wooden grave markers, some with inscriptions, in the cemetary; however, the property had been leased for cattle grazing and the livestock had destroyed the markers. He did identify a carved stone base and another gravesite around an existing cattle guard.3 Mr. and Mrs. Sam Cook, who owned the land from September of 19361 until February of 1945, verified that the area was known as Belle Hill. They substantiated Mr. DeGroots observations about the location and existence of gravestones. They recalled that a burial had occurred during their ownership, sometime as late as the early 1940's. The Cooks loaned Espey, Huston and Associates an aerial survey done in 1940 which, when enlarged, showed the remains of stone walls which appear to have surrounded the cemetary. The walls were removed in the early 1930's.4 The third primary source of information located by Ms. Voellinger was Mrs. Willie Smith,' daughter of Jennie Jackson Woods. Mrs. Smith outlined a geneology for the Woods family and accompanied Ms. Voellinger to the cemetary where she identified the site of the grave of her mother. Mrs. Smith states that her grandmother, Mary Jane Jackson, and possibly her grandfather Ruben Jackson, her mother's husband Douglas Woods and his father, Nathan Woods, were buried in the cemetary. Additional gravesites were located next to the Jackson Cemetary in an

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page 4, Jackson Cemetary area reserved for the Woods family on the west side of the fence out of Los Lomas. 5 Additional interviews with descendents of the Jackson family included Lois Jackson Shaw and Willie Jackson Parks who were daughters Silas Jackson, a son of Milton and Lucinda Jackson. Harold Spencer was also interviewed. Mr. Spencer is the son of Alberta Spencer who was a daugher of Julia Jackson. Julia Jackson was another daugher of Milton and Lucinda Jackson. These family members accounted for a minim of 17 family members buried in the cemetary including Milton and Lucinda Jackson, 11 of their J16. children, 2 children from Lucinda's previous marriage, one grandchild and possibly her husband's parents.6 In addition to family members buried in the graveyard several Black members of the community who perished in the Austin smallpox epidemic in 1916 are believed buried as an area around the cemetary was set up as a hospital during the epidemic. An accurate account of the burials was not maintained.7 Epsey, Huston and Associates also conducted a remote sensing analyE of the aforementioned area and several sites were subsequently marked with wooden stakes and identified as possible grave sites. A total of 46 anomalies were recorded as a result of that remote sensing survey whi Epsey, Huston and Associates believes corresponds with information obtained from the Wood and Jackson family members as well as the Cooks and Jim DeGroot.8 As a result of the completion of the Epsey, Huston study, Manorwood Development Corporation set aside approximately one-half acre complete with a 15-foot wide access walkway which extends from the cemetary in an easterly direction to the subdivision road for the Jackson Family The Jackson Cemetary may be reached by exiting onto Farm Road 2244

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page 5, Jackson Cemetary (Bee Cave Road ) off of MOPAC (Route 1 ' which runs north/south through Austin. After exiting onto Bee Cave Road follow the road approximately one mile to the intersection with Rollingwood Drive. Turn right and after a short distance of approximately 250 feet, take a left onto Los Lomas. Follow the main street to the right approximately: 3/4 of a mile and the cemetary walkway will be apparent on the left hand or west side of the road. The addition of an historical marker at the entrance of this walkway would honor the Black founding families of Travis County as well as commemorate those who lost their lives in the smallpox epidemic of 1916. The marker would serve to remind the new residents of Los Lomas as well as Eanes school children and other Eanes residents of the rich heritage of their portion of Hill Country land.

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Jackson Cemetary footones Vance, Linda. Eanes: Portrait of a Community. Taylor Publish Company, 1986. p. 60. 2Voellinger, Melissa W. Jackson Historical Centetary, Las Lomas Subdivision. Epsey, Huston and Associates, Inc., P.O. Box 519, Austin, Texas 78767, September 1984. 3 DeGroot, Jim. Interview with Jim DeGroot by Melissa W. Voellinger on August 6, 1984, in Austin, Texas. Cook, Sam and Eula Belle Cook. Interview with Sam and Eula Belle Cook on August 9, 1984, Austin, Texas by Melissa W. Voellinger. Smith, Willie. Interview with Willie Smith by Melissa W. Voellinger, on August 18, 1984, in Austin, Texas. '6Parks, Willie, Lois Shaw and Harold Spencer. Interview with Willie Parks, Lois Shaw and Harold Spencer on August 29, 1984, in Austin Texas, by Melissa W. Voellinger.

Original record: metapth1065508 on the Portal to Texas History.