Historic Cemetery

Felicidad Ranch Cemetery

a.k.a. Felicidad

Clareville, Texas
Location: From Hwy 59 in Beeville take FM 888 south 5.5 mles to 4766 FM 888 (Felicidad Ranch entrance) on west side of road. This is the entrance to the Felicidad Ranch, owned by Bill Carl since 1929. Follow the winding, private gravel road behind locked gate .9 miles (west) to Carl home. Cemetery located about .5 miles NE of home on private, not well established roads. A guide and a 4-wheel drive vehicle are necessary to reach the site. The actual site consists of 5 limestone enclosures w/out headstones and one headstone outside of the enclosures. The lone headstone could not be located at the time of my visit because of the dense brush. The site is overgrown and many snakes were seen at the site. This site needs immediate attention and the origins of the graves or who is buried here is unknown. Mr. Carl has been searching for the identities of those buried at these sites but he has had no luck at this point. Mr. Carl plans to clean the site and has done so in the past.Almost nothing is known about this site or the people that are buried here.

Source: RIP Fields Table

To address the problem of cemetery destruction and to record as many cemeteries as possible, the Texas Historical Commission offers the Historic Texas Cemetery designation.

The Historic Texas Cemetery designation was developed in 1998 to help protect historic cemeteries by recording cemetery boundaries in county deed records to alert present and future owners of land adjacent to the cemetery of its existence. Every county in Texas has at least one cemetery designated as a Historic Texas Cemetery through this program. The HTC designation is the first step toward preservation of a historic cemetery.

A cemetery is eligible for designation if it is at least 50 years old and is deemed worthy of recognition for its historical associations. The very nature of a cemetery being a landmark of a family’s or community’s presence is considered to validate the criteria of historical associations. Any individual, organization, or agency may submit a request for designation.

gravesites