Kaiser Cemetery

Napoleon B. Breeding purchased this land from the Republic of Texas in May 1837, soon after Colorado County organized. German immigrants were among the early settlers of Frelsburg and this area which was later called Brushy community. John Frederick Kaiser (1790-1870), his wife, Lucy (1792-1860), and their children came to Texas in 1848 from Bremen, Germany. John and Lucy’s sons George, Johann and Ludwig all owned land in the area, which they purchased from Napoleon breeding. Ludwig Frederick Kaiser and his wife, Anna Gertrude (Maier) were charter members of the Trinity Lutheran Church in Freslburg, and their son Carl was baptized in the church in 1855. Other local German families included descendants of Bernard and Anna (Meinen) Aschenbeck, and the Lilie, Ladewig, and Meyer families. Descendants of many early families still live here.

In January 1859, Ludwig and Anna Kaiser deeded 1.5 acres of land to the community to be used for a school and cemetery. Ludwig Kaiser died in jan. 1860 and was the first person buried in this cemetery. His wife, Anna, died in 1867 and is buried beside him; their headstones are both inscribed in their native German language. Many members of related German families are buried here, along with individuals who could not be interred in Frelsburg when a high-running cummins creek made roads impassable. Among the dozens of burials here are at least 11 military veterans who served from the civil war through the Korean conflict, including Ludwig’s younger brother, Johann Frederick Wilhelm Kaiser (1827-1867), a Confederate army soldier during the civil war. Today the cemetery is a tribute to early area settlers and their descendants and the rural heritage of Texas.