Getting to know the ghosts

By Laura Tillman/The Brownsville Herald

The Old City Cemetery is a graceful mess of damaged tombs, fallen angels, and splayed wrought iron fences. The lives of Brownsville's historic dead are marked in shorthand with dates, names, causes of death, and occasional phrases of prayer to send them into the earth.

Over the past few years, preservationists and historical enthusiasts have begun to repair the damage wrought by gravediggers and vandals.

This year, Hudson Elementary School students have joined the effort. Fourth grade students will guide cemetery tours on May 17 as part of their ‘Keepers of the Crypt' exhibit and program at the Old City Cemetery.

The project was funded by the History's Channel's Save Our History National Grant, which gives organizations like the Brownsville Historical Association funding to partner with youth in creative preservation.

The class's teacher, Noel Kendall, said that initially she wasn't sure how her students would respond to learning about cemeteries.

"A fish tank was given to the class and a number of the fish died," she said. "The kids were very upset and we held a burial service for the fish. I realized then that they could do the project because they were sensitive to death."

Over the course of the past semester, the students have learned about cemetery etiquette, the Brownsville historical figures buried in the cemetery, how to clean tombstones, and the history of the town during the last two centuries.

Each of the students prepared a short educational talk about someone in the cemetery. During the May 17 tour, the public will have the opportunity to hear the costumed children talk about the figures and time periods as they stand at by their graves.

"You can tell that D. Mariano Treviño y Garcia was well admired and had great wealth from his well-preserved Grecian-style tomb," said 10-year-old Jenna Hinojosa, practicing her presentation. She said that she selected Treviño y Garcia because she liked the symbol carved into the facade of the tomb.

"I used to think cemeteries were creepy," she said. "Now I think they're really nice, really pretty and stuff." Over the course of the project Hinojosa said that she learned about the Mexican-American War, the annexation of Texas, and the definition of ‘facade.'

Anthony Knopp, a history professor at the University of Texas Brownsville and Texas Southmost College, helped to teach the students about some of the fascinating stories lingering among the headstones.

Most of the oldest graves are located at the highest point of the cemetery; indigent graves are closer to the resaca below, in a section Knopp refers to as Potter's Field.

"During the U.S.-Mexico War, some of Pancho Villa's soldiers tried to capture Matamoros and lost. After they were defeated they came over to Brownsville to tend to the wounded. About a dozen of them are buried here."

During Hurricane Beulah, the resaca at the base of the cemetery's hill flooded, and the remains of those buried in Potter's Field washed up, likely including those of the soldiers.

For Knopp, it is equally enchanting to imagine the lives of those that lived and died in Brownsville's first years as a tiny town as it is to conceive of their reaction to the burgeoning city Brownsville has become.

Though the names on the graves are familiar to many locals - Yturria, Putegnat, Treviño - these were the first members of their families to come to the area. Lynchburg, Virginia, Portland, Maine and New York all mark the headstones.

What, Knopp wonders, would John McAllen - founder of McAllen - think if he could see the Valley today? How would it be different if he had never made his way here? The questions are enough to keep even the most casual historian interested, but with Hudson students at your side, you might even learn some of the answers.

If you miss the Hudson Elementary School tour of the site, tours can be arranged with Knopp by calling the Old City Cemetery Center at (956) 541-1167.

ltillman@brownsvilleherald.com