Texas Cemeteries: The Resting Places of Famous, Infamous, and Just Plain Interesting Texans (Clifton and Shirley Caldwell Texas Heritage Series) (Paperback)

by Bill Harvey (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
From the simplest slab of weathered stone to the most imposing mausoleum, every marker in a Texas cemetery bears witness to a life that--in ways small or large--helped shape the history and culture of the state. Telling the stories of some of these significant lives is the purpose of this book. Within its pages, you'll meet not only the heroes of the Texas Revolution, for example, but also one of the great African American cowboys of the traildriving era (Bose Ikard) and the first woman in Texas elected to statewide office (Annie Webb Blanton). Visiting cemeteries from every era and all regions of the state, Bill Harvey recounts the histories of famous, infamous, and just plain interesting Texans who lie at rest in Texas cemeteries. The book is organized alphabetically by city for easy reference. For each city, Harvey lists one or more cemeteries, giving their location and history, if significant. At the heart of the book are his profiles of the noteworthy people buried in each cemetery. They include not only famous but also lesser-known and even unknown Texans who made important contributions to the state in the arts, sports, business, military service, politics--truly every area of communal life. For those who want to visit these resting places, Harvey also includes tips on finding cemeteries, locating gravesites, and taking good photographs. Spend time with him in the graveyards of Texas, and you'll soon appreciate what fascinating stories the silent stones can tell.

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: University of Texas Press; 1 edition (February 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0292734662
• ISBN-13: 978-0292734661
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #994,413 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book on personalities, less so on graveyards themselves, February 10, 2007

By	calvinnme "Texan refugee" (Fredericksburg, Va) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

This is a really good book if you are interested in the final resting places of many lesser known as well as more famous Texans with all kind of interesting life stories that are buried throughout the state. The book goes into pretty good detail about what made each Texan that is highlighted interesting and pretty much pinpoints their individual graves. It also does a good job of representing the entire state. However, if you are interested in the stories of the graveyards themselves, as I am, this book is missing that information for the most part, and Texas graveyards themselves have some interesting stories.

I'll give an example. When I was in college I was living in an apartment complex in Arlington, Tx. Across from the complex was/is a park, adjacent to the University of Texas at Arlington. There is an unnamed cemetery in that park with headstones from 1900-1920 approximately. A couple of the headstones are large and elaborate, but there are about two rows of headstones that merely say Infant #1, Infant #2, etc. It turns out that the apartment complex I lived in was once the site of an unwed mother's home and the cemetery across from it was where those unwed mothers who had died in childbirth, disowned by their families, were buried. The unnamed infants were the ones that didn't make it at a time in the early 1900's when so many babies didn't make it through the birthing process. How sad to think about these infants, buried with nothing more than a number to ID them. These were the kinds of stories I was really looking for, but it is not really the subject of this book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, October 22, 2003

By	Thomas Bonar (Cypress, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book will make you want to explore the cemeteries of Texas and learn more about the people you find buried there. The authour has thoughtfully included GPS coordinates to help find the cemeteries. This is especially helpful for some of the more remote locations. I was especially glad to see the respect shown to the people mentioned in the book, especially Congressional Medal of Honor winners. Hopefully this book will help to foster a deeper understanding of our state's history and a nurturing of it cemeteries.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars DEAD IN TEXAS, May 16, 2006

By	Shannon Deason "SchylarRex" (Houston) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Interesting book on a seemingly obscure subject, a very good nitch book. I really was surprised at how fascinating I found this book, it's amazing how many famous people are buried here in the Lone Star State. The research is well done and the book is quite thorough, frankly this is a very good history lesson: don't be alarmed this is a lesson that you will enjoy, reguardless of your acumen for history. In my experience the dont miss cemetery in Texas is Glenwood in Houston, it is simply spectacularly beautiful, it's actually hilly, so odd for Houston and many famous Texans are buried there, most famous of course being Howard Hughes. Highly recommended.