souls lost to time

 

Perched on the edge of the Caprock just east of Crosbyton, the Mt. Zion Cemetery is testament to the black population of the community.  The Mt. Zion Church, an African-American church built in 1924, established the cemetery which was in use until the 1970s.   It then lay neglected for many years and history was lost.  A Boy Scout Eagle project repaired the cemetery and "ditching" led to finding graves.  Today those unidentified graves are marked by simple white iron crosses. 

 

Mt. Zion Cemetery

Crosby County, Texas

eisenkreuzen

Since 1887 Erasmus Meyer has rested in peace in the St. Louis Catholic Cemetery. This cemetery has served the Parish of St. Louis Catholic Church since the founding of Castroville in 1844.

The tradition of wrought-iron-cross cemetery art goes back to the 1600’s in Austria and Bavaria. Blacksmiths in Tyrol and upper Austria made the first handcrafted iron cemetery crosses. This art form seems to have become pervasive among European peoples, but only some of them transferred it to the North American Plains. The cross represented the sacred; the iron represented strength--attributes of the pioneers they honored.

St. Louis Catholic Cemetery
Castroville, Texas
4.6.2012

http://www.spiritdesignsonline.com/history_germanrussian.php