{"id":1324,"date":"2016-01-23T15:05:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-23T15:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/?p=1324"},"modified":"2016-01-23T15:07:58","modified_gmt":"2016-01-23T15:07:58","slug":"focus-on-the-backroads-texas-state-cemetery-austin-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/?p=1324","title":{"rendered":"FOCUS ON THE BACKROADS: TEXAS STATE CEMETERY – AUSTIN"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Just east of downtown Austin, the\u00a0Texas State Cemetery<\/strong>\u00a0is located on 22 acres of land. \u00a0The cemetery is divided into to two section, one that contains 900 graves of deceased prominent Texans and another that has over 2,200 graves of Confederate soldiers and widows.<\/p>\n

In 1851 General Edward Burleson, who fought in the Battle of San Jacinto and also during the Cherokee and Mexican War and later served as the Vice-President of the Republic of Texas, was the fist person buried in the cemetery. \u00a0He was the only person buried there until 1856 when Abner Lipscomb, Associate Justice of the Texas Supreme Court, was buried in 1854. \u00a0Between 1856 and 1866 there were numerous burials including Civil War Generals, soldiers that found for Texas independence, and many of widely know Texas leader at the time. \u00a0In the late 1900’s the State of Texas took over the Confederate Men’s and Women’s Home. \u00a0As many of these men and women passed away there was space made available at the cemetery to bury them with their former Generals. \u00a0One acre was set aside for graves of Union veterans. \u00a0Later all but one, Antonio Briones, were removed to Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio. \u00a0Briones is buried alone in the far northwest corner of the cemetery.<\/p>\n

In the early 1900’s there were efforts to enhance the\u00a0Texas State Cemetery<\/strong>. \u00a0In August of 1906 a Albert Sidney Johnston monument was completed. \u00a0Johnston, graduated from West Point in 1826 and served as a general in three different armies: \u00a0The Republic of Texas Army, \u00a0the United States Army, \u00a0and the Confederate State Army. \u00a0He was the highest-ranking officer, Union or Confederate, to serve in the Civil War. \u00a0He was killed early in the Civil War at the Battle of Shiloh at the age of 59. \u00a0Shorty afterwards the remains of Stephen F. Austin were brought to the cemetery and a monument was erected in his honor. \u00a0Between 1929 ad 1936 over seventy men and women were reinterred.<\/p>\n

Burial guidelines were established in 1953. \u00a0To obtain a plot individuals must meet one of the following requirements: \u00a0member or ex-member of the Texas Legislature, Confederate Veteran, elected state official, state official appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Legislature, \u00a0individual designated by governor’s proclamation or a resolution of the Legislature, or the spouse of anyone meeting and of these criteria.<\/p>\n

In the northeast section of the cemetery is Monument Hill. \u00a0The special area honors those who have made sacrifices to preserve the freedoms that we enjoy as Texans and Americans. \u00a0There are monuments commemorating Medal of Honor and Purple Heart recipients, \u00a0World War II, and the Vietnam War. \u00a0The\u00a0Gold Star Mothers<\/em>\u00a0Monument<\/em>\u00a0honor women whose sons and daughters have perished in all wars. \u00a0The\u00a0Nine Men of Praha\u00a0<\/em>Monument\u00a0<\/em>honors men from Fayette County who died in combat in 1944 and 1945. \u00a0There is a monument that honors \u00a0African-American legislators that served Texas during Reconstruction. \u00a0One of the most memorable monuments is the\u00a09-11 Memorial<\/em>\u00a0which includes two actual beams from the World Trade Center towers that were destroyed in 2001. \u00a0In 2013 US Navy Seal Chris Kyle was laid to rest on Monument Hill. \u00a0The inscription on his grave reads \u00a0It is our duty to serve those who serve us.<\/em><\/p>\n

The next time you visit Austin please take some time to visit this beautiful cemetery. \u00a0It is an opportunity to reflect \u00a0and honor the many men and women that have contributed to our great Texas Heritage.<\/p>\n

Texas is neither southern or western….TEXAS IS TEXAS \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/em>Senator William Blakley<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just east of downtown Austin, the\u00a0Texas State Cemetery\u00a0is located on 22 acres of land. \u00a0The cemetery is divided into to two section, one that contains …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,18,15,12,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-backroads","category-historic-cemetery","category-memorials","category-texas-events","category-texas-historical-site"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Texas-Cemetery-2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1324"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1327,"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1324\/revisions\/1327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusonthebackroads.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}