Texas Pride ???
If you want to see
this:
You'll have to claw your way through
this:
This is the final resting place of a
San Jacinto Veteran
Just two and a half miles south of Flatonia, Fayette County, Texas, on the East side, in a pasture only about a hundred yards from hi-way 95, this Cemetery where Jacob D. Castleman, one of the first Americans to arrive in Spanish Tejas with his Father, mother and siblings, and a survivor of the battle at San Jacinto where Texas won her freedom from Mexico, lies in shameful disrepair. In 1962 the State of Texas erected a marker to that effect and from the looks of the cemetery, hasn't done a thing to it since.
If you fight the brambles you can get inside the fenced area where you can almost see all the stones. Jacob's headstone is broken in half and the San Jacinto marker is covered with weeds and dirt. Jacob's mother is also buried there, she was the wife of Sylvanus Castleman, one of the two first Americans to receive land grants in what was to become Austin's Colony. All of the other graves are the wife and children of Jacob.
I ask you, is this any way for Texas to honor their history? Jacob has a three inch diameter sapling growing out of where his stomach would be. The cost of cleaning this plot would be minimal and you would think that Texas would have enough pride to want the site of one of their founders kept up. I guess your name had to be Austin or Houston to receive that simple courtesy..
If you would like to see this situation improve, send a letter or an e-mail to the Texas Senator or Representative of your choice.
©2001 by Asa Castleman, Webmaster