Montague Catholic Cemetery

Settlers from the mountain provinces of Northern Italy began arriving in Montague in the early 1880s, with the families of Barretto Raimondi, Jack Fenoglio, Antonio Perona, and Charlie Corado among the earliest. By the early 1900s, as many as fifty Italian families lived there. Most of these immigrants were Catholic, and in 1901 they established St. John Catholic Church in Montague. The Most Rev. E.J. Dunne, Bishop of Dallas, bought three acres for a cemetery on April 28, 1900. The land was laid out in four sections surveyed into blocks, and Giroloma Vitali was the first burial in 1901. Gravestones reflect Italian heritage along with families of German, Polish, and Hispanic descent, and more than 250 marked and unmarked graves are recorded there.

Texas · United States