MERCEDES BAPTIST CEMETERY

Cementerio Bautista de Mercedes

Hidalgo Co. Cemeteries of Tx

Submitted by Frances Isbell

With Permission  of Hidalgo Co. Historical Commission (2006)

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Cementerio Bautista de Mercedes

With permission of Hidalgo County Historical Commission 2006

LOCATION: In Mercedes on Anacahuitas Street .75 miles west of Texas Avenue, across dirt road east of and bordering Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Cemetery.

SURVEY: Partially surveyed April 2006 by Fran and John Isbell.

HISTORY: The Primera Iglesia Bautista Mexicana de Mercedes (First Mexican Baptist Church of Mercedes) was organized about 1918. Among their first members were Mercedes residents Joseph H. and Maria Howell and their eight children (Casimiro, Paulino, Jacinto, Albert, William, Henry Jr., Maria and Joseph H.). Joseph H. Howell Sr., born in Port Isabel, was the son of Albert Charles Howell, indentured in New York, who ran away at the age of 16 because of mistreatment. In New Orleans, he joined the Confederacy, was captured, imprisoned on a ship, and escaped to Mexico.

On June 30, 1939, the First Mexican Baptist Church of Mercedes purchased about two acres for a cemetery from Faith Lutheran Church (formerly Ebenezer Lutheran Church founded in Mercedes in 1911, which moved to Weslaco in 1931). The location was adjacent to and west of Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Cemetery and across the street from Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery, in southwest Mercedes.

Twelve members of the congregation donated amounts from $2.00 to $30.00 to make up the purchase price of $100 for the property. Donors were : J. H. Howell, Rodolfo Garcia, Julian Zepeda (listed twice), Regino Robledo, Paulino Avila, Pedro Hernandez, J. K. Riese, Billie Tilery, Jake Fossler, P. G. Kenly, and Apolonio Gonzales. Jacob Fossler, a member of the Immanuel Lutheran Church, apparently contributed to help his Baptist neighbors acquire the "other" Lutheran Cemetery.

A cemetery committee headed by Apolonio Gonzalez published rules in 1961. They provided that all relatives of decedents were morally obliged to pay for or help maintain the cemetery, exempted indigent widows and orphans from fees, limited interment to members of the church, and established burial fees of $12.00. Crosses, religious statues, tall trees, wooden houses, animal pens and rubbish heaps were prohibited.

The Baptist Cemetery was cleaned a few years ago by a youth group. Currently it is maintained by Juan Garcia and Lupe Palacios. Juan Garcia has been caring for the cemetery since 2002; he is not a member of the congregation, but has family members interred there.

The cemetery is bare earth, in the tradition of Mexican-American ranch cemeteries in Hidalgo County, shaded by large ebony and mesquite trees. A curb surrounds the large Howell-Pumarejo plot at the entrance. Hurricane fencing runs along the north side (Anacahuitas Street). The wrought iron entrance gate is broken. Brush on south and east separate the cemetery from nearby ranches. There are approximately 350 graves.

Pastor in 2006 was Guillermo Fuentes of Mercedes.