In 1887 a group of local German businessmen formed an association called the Deutsche Gesellschaft, for the purpose of establishing a cemetery for the German citizens of the Houston area. They purchased this tract, then located outside the city limits, from the heirs of John Lawrence and Thomas Hart. Until 1918 the burial site was known as the German Society Cemetery. The name was changed to Washington Cemetery because of anti-German sentiment during World War I. The earliest burials after the founding of the cemetery occurred on March 20, 1887, when J. Turner and Annie Fraser were interred here. One section with forty-two gravesites was set aside for the burial of Confederate veterans of the Civil War by members of the Dick Dowling Camp. No. 197, UCV. Emma (Edmondson) Seelye (1841-1898), also a veteran of the Civil War, is buried here. Masquerading as a man and using the name Frank Thompson, she enlisted in the Federal army in 1861. For two years she served as a soldier, scout, brigade postmaster, and orderly on the staff of General O. M. Poe. She left the unit in 1863 after contracting malaria, but later served in the war as a nurse. She died near La Porte, Texas.
This page last updated: 7/15/2008 |
Washington Cemetery Historical Marker Location Map, Houston, Texas
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