by Sarah-Hope Parohl
I visited the Texas State Cemetery in early February for the first time since I was in fourth grade. Growing up in Austin, I visited almost every historical site in town, but before I could absorb and make connections between the material I was learning at the site and the material I learned in classes.
Upon arriving at the Cemetery, I walked through the Visitor’s Center, reading about the lives of some of the folks buried there and seeing memorabilia to highlight them. There is also a short video in the Visitors Center that goes into detail about the history of the Cemetery, the recent restoration projects, and the geography of the grounds. The grounds, divided into sections, are so named to highlight the individual’s achievements. For example, Confederate Field is home to the headstones of Texas Confederate soldiers; Republic Hill is the resting place of Texas Revolutionaries, Justices, Legislators, Governors, and old Texas Legends; while Monument Hill is home to astronauts, District Judges, and Texas State Cemetery Committee members, to name a few.
The most fascinating aspect was, of course, the stories of individuals that the kind lady at the Visitor’s Center (who happened to be from Calgary, Canada!) shared with me. She informed me that the oldest individual buried in the Cemetery is not a Texan but a French explorer estimated to have died in the late 1600s in a shipwreck in the Gulf of Mexico. A delegation from Texas even reached out to French preservationists to see if they would like the remains back in his home country, but they let him rest in Texas. On the highest point of the Cemetery lay an astronaut, Eugene Cernan, the second American to walk in space.
The Texas State Cemetery is not just a collection of headstones; it’s a place of diverse and deeply meaningful memorials. These memorials pay tribute to those who can never return to Texas. There is a monument recognizing those who lost their lives in the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and those who traveled to help New York rebuild. The monument contains two steel columns from Ground Zero, serving as a solemn reminder of the tragedy. There is a monument for Texans who have received the Medal of Honor, those who fought in the War of 1812, received a Purple Heart, fought in World War II, or Vietnam. Each of these monuments is a testament to the courage and sacrifice of these individuals. There is a monument that honors the African American legislators who served during the Reconstruction Era, a tribute to their contribution to Texas history.
While learning about others’ history, I was able to take a trip down memory lane. The only time I remember being at the Texas State Cemetery was for a guided tour that my Girl Scout Troop took in 2012. I do not remember much from that trip, but I have always remembered the story of Josiah Wilbarger.
Wilbarger is one of the few to survive scalping after Native Americans ambushed him and some others. His friends, thinking he was dead, rode away, and the only reason Wilbarger survived with an untreated open wound was because blowflies laid eggs in his wound, and once the maggots hatched, they ate away the infection. While he survived, he never truly recovered from his wound, so his wife made him a raccoon skin hat to protect his skull and brain. Wilbarger died over a decade after his scalping when he hit his head on his workbench without wearing the hat his wife made him. I do not remember much from my fourth-grade trip, but I remember the tour guide saying, “This is why wives are always right” after finishing the tale of Josiah Wilbarger.
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