State Cemetery of Texas
a.k.a. State Cemetery
901 Navasota St., Austin, TXThe State Cemetery, burial ground for the honored dead of Texas, was founded in 1851, when General Edward Burleson, hero of the Texas Revolution, was interred on the tract. In 1854, the State purchased the land, which had once belonged to Andrew Jackson Hamilton, Provisional Governor of Texas from 1865-1866. However, the tract was seldom used until the 1860s when some officers of the Confederate Army of Texas were buried there. Today, small white marble headstones mark the graves of about 1,583 soldiers and 515 graves of members of their families.
A large number of important historic figures are buried in the State Cemetery or are represented there in the form of funerary art which they executed to commemorate specific individuals. Stephen F. Austin, the "Father of Texas," is buried in the Cemetery as are Johanna Troutman (re-interred 1913), designer of the Flag of the Lone Star; W. A. A. "Big Foot" Wallace (buried ca. 1900), famous Texas Ranger; Ashbel Smith (buried 1886), instrumental in founding The University of Texas; and Governor Francis Lubbock (buried 1905). Work by famous artists includes pieces by Pompeo Coppini, a native of Italy whose work also stands on the grounds of the State Capitol, The University of Texas at Austin, Baylor University in Waco, and the Alamo in San Antonio. The most noteworthy art is the marble reclining figure of Albert Sidney Johnston, sculpted by Elisabet Ney who also executed busts of Garibaldi in Italy; Schopenhauer, Humboldt, Bismarck, Ludwig II, William I, and George V in Germany; and Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston in Texas, the last two works now standing in the United States Capitol.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.