Project Respect, Inc.

Woody Jones has made a listing of the burials (Excel .xlsx file) in the black Gonzales Public Cemetery during his work in Gonzales in 2001-2003. He and Dr. Felipe "Phil" Montero had a contract to map the (historically white) Gonzales Public Cemetery (GPC) in downtown Gonzales. While Phil created the system and mapping for the GPC, Woody worked on the black cemetery in the eastern half of the cemetery, known locally as the Church Street Cemetery. It was not a part of the contract with the City of Gonzales. The complete mapping for the Old Gonzales Cemetery, done in AutoCAD with a Fox Pro database and custom interface written by Phil, is among the material waiting to be posted on this web site. They have another set of software called Cemetery Information Management System (CIMS) that was used in a cemetery in Port Arthur, Texas as a basis to document the cemetery.

Woody did some research at the Gonzales Genealogy Library and found a record of the Black Cemetery as far back as 1834. Many of the early burials from the earl 1800's had no markers and were often marked in the same manner that native Americans used to mark their graves - limestone with etchings, household items, brick, stones, etc.

In 2001-2002, the Black Community had no idea of the age, origin, history, and significance of the Black cemetery. They were still selling plots in areas they thought to be vacant. But the cemetery sat on the side of a huge hill and the run off from more than a hundred of years had caused some of the remains to be near the surface. They were working on a marker for a man with the visible first name of "Edward" and found what appeared to be his teeth within inches of the surface. In addition, plots were still being sold in the black section despite the fact that many graves were unmarked and there were no records to indicate which plots actually contained remains. The City Manager, Mr. Buddy Drake, and the City Council were informed. They called a meeting for the specific purpose of closing the black Cemetery to the public. The result was an announcement to the community that the city would no longer support racially-divided cemeteries and that Black citizens were welcome to purchase individual or dedicated family plots in the new Gonzales Memorial Cemetery. The new cemetery is located on old 90A east of Gonzales. The white portion of the old Gonzales City Cemetery is almost full and remains open to burials, but only to families who already own empty plots.

Subsequent to this work, the city gave them a contract to map the new Mexican Cemetery. There is also an old abandoned and neglected Mexican Cemetery (Catholic) just outside the loop in Gonzales that is just as old as the Black Cemetery. The old Mexican cemetery is about five acres and lies along a creek. It has beautiful old monuments and markers. No research or records exist for that historic cemetery. None of these cemeteries are registed with the Texas Historical Commission and the rich history of the communities where the people that made up early Texas communities, stories of their struggles, have never been properly documented. Historians of that time could only print what was acceptable as dictated by community standards.

There is another very early cemetery in Burleson, Texas where LaVaughn Mosley and LaVaughn Thomas (PVAMU Ag Extension Agent for Burleson County), told us the community stories and showed us the cemetery mound created by native Americans, called Old Fortham. The Old Fortham Cemetery is documented in a book written by the noted Sociologist Dr. Dianne Mosley. She earned her Ph.D for the work she published about the social order and burial practices at the cemetery. This is a future project that Woody Jones personally wants to execute with the assistance of other professionals.

One last note about old cemeteries and communities where Woody and his wife Sam have done preliminary work. Mexicans and African-Americans are buried in the San Felipe Cemetery in San Felipe, Texas that has never been documented. The cemetery dates back to the days when Santa Ana marched through Texas. Most of the early African-Americans in San Felipe have Mexican brothers and sisters. Their stories have never been researched, documented and published. It is a part of the early colorful history of Texas that needs to be recovered.