Port Isabel Cemetery

Port Isabel Cemetery occupies nearly one acre on land granted to Don Rafael Garcia by the government of Mexico in 1829 as part of the Santa Ysabel Grant. Garcia established a ranch there called El Fronton de Santa Isabel, while continuing to live in Matamoros, Mexico, and hired workers operated the property. According to local tradition, those workers began using the site as a burial ground as early as the 1840s, though no grave markers from that period survive and the oldest marked graves date to the 1880s. French Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate consecrated the ground in December 1849 for use as a Catholic cemetery, but throughout its history it has served as a community burial ground for people of all faiths. Later, members of the Champion (Campeoni) family, immigrants from Italy to America in the early 19th century, owned the land and donated the cemetery property to the Catholic Church in 1926. It remains an important part of Port Isabel's cultural history.

Port Isabel, Texas · United States