Sealy Cemetery

In 1879 Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway Company agent George Sealy purchased 11,635 acres at this location from the township of San Felipe de Austin to establish a railroad depot. The village of Sealy soon developed around the depot, and on July 5, 1883, its first burial here was that of the infant Annie Fowlkes. Families who settled in Sealy purchased cemetery plots directly from the railroad until the company donated the land to cemetery trustees C.H. Ruff, R.P. Josey, and John Hackbarth in 1887. The Sealy Cemetery Association was founded sometime prior to 1898 and officially chartered in 1924. The Ladies of the Cemetery Society, organized in 1904, helped the association cultivate community support to upgrade and maintain the cemetery. Two notable society members, Mrs. J.W. (Vera) Ripple and Mrs. Paul (Mahala) Hackbarth, helped organize a Christmas Bazaar fundraising event in the 1930's that developed into an important annual social affair in the community. Among the more than 2,400 grave sites are those of many of Sealy's early residents, and the cemetery includes a variety of gravestones and statuary as well as two mausoleums.

Sealy, Texas · United States