For my second cultural report I decided to go to one of the oldest cemeteries in Liberty County, which also happens to be our families. Before arriving to the cemetery I somewhat could remember what it looked like from a previous I had taken with my grandparents when I was in Texas history in seventh grade because they wanted to show me the historical marker. As we pulled up to the cemetery I noticed that not a lot had changed, the historical marker still stood in the same place, but there was a new covered patio on the right side built for having sermons or gatherings before burials. The cemetery was very well maintained for how old it is, it dates back to the 1800’s with the first burial being in 1852. The first people to start this cemetery were the Abshiers and the Weeds that came from Louisiana in 1843. In June of 1852 the Abshier’s daughter Lucinda Abshier Higginbotham died becoming the first person buried on this plot of land, and from then on it became the Abshier cemetery. The cemetery is located off of a 61, the main road that goes threw Hankamer. It is off the road a little ways through what used to be land owned by the Abshiers, and the cemetery is located in a small plot that is surrounded by trees. It is a relatively small cemetery, but it looks very nice for how old it is. For the most part you can tell which graves are the oldest by the headstones, and where they are located farther in the back. There are no really big monumental headstones, for the most part they are pretty simple and look about the same.

Buried in the cemetery people from many different last names, but they are all some how related either by marriage or blood. Some of the names that are in there are Hankamer, which is where the cemetery is located and I would bet they are part of the family that founded that part of Texas. Another name that is located at the cemetery is Barrow, which is another big name around this part of Texas, especially towards Beach City, Texas and point Barrow. There are also of course many Abshiers, and also Weeds, which are part of the founding family. I didn’t look at every headstone but I only found one baby, which I’m sure there are more but the baby I saw was five days old and part of the Hankamer family.

Along side of how old this place is and how it is all family, there are also several veterans buried in this cemetery. I found it pretty interesting that all of the veterans I saw have the same type of headstone, which was a piece of granite with a bronze plaque on top of it stating what branch they were in, what position they held, and also what wars or wars they were in. The veteran’s headstone that stuck out to me was James W. Cranford because it was well maintained and he was in the Korean War, and the Vietnam War and survived both. It also had an American flag in the ground next to it that was blowing in the wind so I got a pretty good picture of it.

As far as family members that I recognized or knew in the cemetery there were not many. One of them that I did know personally was “Pudzo” Abshier, who was a local farmer that died a few years ago. I don’t know where he got the nickname Pudzo from, but that is what everyone knew him by and it stuck. His headstone I found really neat because he had his family cattle brand located at the top left corner, as did his parents headstone that was located right next to his. 

The other family members that I recognized both dies when I was relatively young, but I had still met them at one point of my life. I found there headstone very unique because they both had their first and middle name and the last name was real big over both of their names. But the thing that I really liked about their headstone was that between their names it said married 70 years, which is an incredible milestone to reach.

Cemeteries are important to our culture because it gives family something to go back and look at when they have kids or even if they want to go see a loved one that was lost. It is very important to out cultural history, and can tell a huge story about the past. Individual graves can tell stories by the designs they have on them, like one that I saw had marsh grass and ducks on it. Just by looking at that grave I could tell that that person was either a duck hunting guide or just loved the sport of duck hunting. Cemeteries as a whole can tell a story by the graves that are located inside them, and the ages of the graves.