Gay Hill Texas Fayette County Gay Hill Cemetery. (original) (raw)

Gay Hill Cemetery View of Texas highway

View of Highway 71 from the cemetery
TE photos, November 2006

History in a Pecan Shell

This town was named after James Gay, whose brother Thomas founded another town named Gay Hill (in neighboring Washington County). This Gay Hill grew around a Republic of Texas plantation and stretched along a high ridge overlooking the Colorado River (a few miles south).

The town is indeed a hill - rising 370 feet above the level of the river but the cluster of houses and church isn't marked by any highway community sign. In the mid 1980s the community was comprised of 12 families and Gay Hill has no fewer than three cemeteries - one being an iron fence enclosure and marked as the Gay Hill Cemetery. It is reported that the cemetery is close to Indian burial grounds.

The Gay Hill cemetery is in an Oak mott on the ridge on the southside of the highway just west of the turn-off to the power plant. Access is difficult.

Gay Hill Cemetery Gate, Texas Cemetery Gate TE photo
Christian Wertzner monument, Gay Hill Cemetery Texas 1936 Marker Monument honoring Christian Wertzner, first permanent German settler in Fayette County. TE photo See Texas Centennial

A 1936 Centennial marker stands outside the fence - marking the grave of Christian Gotthelf Wertner - a German immigrant from Saxony who, as a veteran of the battle of San Jacinto, was awarded a Fayette County land grant for his service to the Republic of Texas. Wertner is believed to be the earliest permanent German settler in the region and this is noted on the marker - as well as his status as a citizen of the Republic of Texas.

Herr Wertzner, who had helped to co-found the Biegel Settlement (now underwater at the power plant lake), died in a accident while working as part of a surveying crew at nearby Shaw's Bend (seven miles east of this spot). The graves within the enclosure are mainly of the Munn and Gay families.

Gay Hill Cemetery Rufus King Gay tombstone

Tombstone of Private Rufus King Gay, CSA
TE photo

Gay Hill Cemetery Gay family tombstone Texas Gay family tombstone TE photo
Gay Hill Cemetery Infants Tombstone Texas Infants Tombstone
Mary Guthrey Tombstone Gay Hill Cemetery Texas Tombstone of Mary Guthrey
Neil Munn Tombstone Gay Hill Cemetery Neil Munn Tombstone
James Gay Tombstone in Gay Hill Cemetery Texas James Gay Tombstone TE photos

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