Wimberley Cemetery – holder of town’s history

Wimberley, being the quaint small town that it is, has a lot charm in its yearly and seasonal customs and traditions. The decorations on the bridge, changing with each season and holiday, the 4th of July parade or EmilyAnn’s Trail of Lights. The charm of the small town is why many move to Wimberley in the first place.

One of the few things that has been around longer than arguments about the sewer is the local Wimberley Cemetery. Each small town has at least one or two and ours is pretty fascinating.

This is no tale of mortality though. Well, maybe a little, but this little cemetery of ours holds the fascinating stories of our history and the people who helped make this town into the charming place it is.

First of all, everybody in town knows where it is. The graves date back a hundred and fifty years or so. Early pioneers Pleasant and Amanda Wimberley’s five year-old daughter, who died in 1876, was one of the first to be buried there.

“The actual burial count from our new software (is that) there are 1,613 burials in the Wimberley Cemetery,” Nancy Kyle, the Wimberley Cemetery Association’s Secretary said. And every one of them comes along with the story of a lifetime.

“One grave is of Harry Gumbert, a National League pitcher,” Carmen Polhemus, a director of the WCA said. Gumbert pitched in the 1930s for the St. Louis Cardinals and the Cincinnati Reds. His grave is marked by a cement baseball and glove.

There are many familiar names on old headstones, some multi-generational whose names grace the pages of the newspaper each week. It gives putting down roots some real meaning. Radio pioneer Parks Johnson, also a 1930s star with his national broadcast of “Vox Pop,” a radio variety program and also his son Bill, a WWII hero and local rancher, are here.

This history is hidden on the stone of each grave, but soon it will be a bit easier to find.

An information board will soon be installed helping loved ones and history seekers find who is buried, and where, in the cemetery. The Wimberley Cemetery Association, is a 501(c) 13, an unincorporated non-profit association, and is responsible for that structure. They also handle the buying and selling of plots in the cemetery. The information board will be in place by the end of the year.

The sturdy structure fits right in with the location, just a stone’s throw to Cypress Creek, (Harry Gumbert could do it, I bet). They had ground penetrating radar done of the cemetery about four years ago and found new unmarked graves.

“We could tell you where the bodies are buried, but not identify any individual,” Joe Pendleton, president of the WCA said. A lot of bodies seem to be from the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918, which spread from Europe with returning World War I soldiers, “according to old timers,” Polhemus said.

The WCA has a generous relinquish policy for those who have moved on from the area, but through inheritance or other factors, no longer wish to be buried here. There are four areas of the cemetery and each is well maintained.

“There’s not a lot of restrictions, because if you make a rule you have to enforce it,’ Pendleton said.

“It’s funny when people come to buy a plot and they lay down on it. Some even want you to lay in it. I draw the line there,” Polhemus said.

This part of area’s local history is maintained and worth visiting, if even to just walk around. And soon it will be a lot easier to find individual graves. For more information on the Wimberley Cemetery Association, please see the website at: wimberleycemetery.com .