| Concordia Cemetery | |
|---|---|
 Map and sign at Concordia Cemetery, El Paso, Texas. | |
 | |
| Details | |
| Established | 1856 |
| Location | Yandell, El Paso, Texas |
| No. of graves | Over 60,000 |
Concordia Cemetery is a burial ground in El Paso, Texas. It is known for the being the burial place of several gunslingers and old west lawmen. The first burial took place in 1856. There are between 60,000 and 65,000 graves in the cemetery. Concordia is the only place to have a Chinese cemetery in Texas.
The main entrance to the cemetery is on Yandell Street, east of Piedras. [1] The cemetery is 52 acres in size. [2] Most of the Chinese burials in El Paso took place in Concordia [3] and it is the only place in Texas to have a Chinese cemetery. [4] The Chinese came to El Paso with the railroad as workers and chose to stay. [5] There are also areas set aside for Buffalo Soldiers, [3] Freemasons, Mormons [2] and Jewish burials. [6] There is also an "infant nursery" with unmarked graves for babies, many of whom died due to the 1918 influenza pandemic which hit El Paso in January 1919. [7] It is possible that remains that were once part of the larger area of the cemetery are still located under houses and other property in the surrounding neighborhoods. [8] In 2012, there were more than 60,000 graves at the cemetery. [9] Other reports state there are around 65,000 graves. [10]
In 2016 and 2017, it was rated the Best Historic Cemetery in the West by True West Magazine . [11] [12] The cemetery is managed by the Concordia Heritage Association. [13] Special events at the cemetery include celebrations of Dia de los Muertos, ghost tours and meetings of the John Wesley Hardin Secret Society. [14] The ghost tours, given by Paso Del Norte Paranormal Society, were first started in order to help pay for maintenance of the cemetery. [15] Ghost Adventures featured the cemetery on an episode aired on October 29, 2016. [16]
The cemetery was once a ranch known as Rancho Concordia, and built by Hugh and Juana Stephenson in the 1840s. [17] Hugh Stephenson married the local Juana Maria Ascarate, and her family gave them the land where they built the ranch. [17] The ranch they built included a chapel and a cemetery. [17] Juana became the first person buried in that cemetery in 1856, after she was gored by a pet deer and died of an infection. [17] Also in 1859, a Catholic Church was built on the site called San José de Concordia el Alto. [18]
In 1882, the city of El Paso bought part of the ranch in order to bury the poor. [19] The different sections of the cemetery were purchased by diverse groups of people by the 1890s, including Jesuits, Catholics, Freemasons, Jewish people, African Americans, Chinese, military, the city and El Paso County. [5] Because of this, no one took responsibility for the upkeep of the cemetery as a whole. [5] In the 1960s, the cemetery was not in good shape and was owned by both private and public interests. [14] In 1990, the Concordia Heritage Association was formed to preserve and maintain the cemetery. [5] In 2012, the Ysleta Lions Club, the Five Points Lions Club and Martin Funeral Homes donated 250 desert willows to the cemetery and helped plant the trees. [20]
George Scarborough was a cowboy and lawman who lived during the time of the Wild West. He is best known for having killed outlaw John Selman, killer of John Wesley Hardin, and for his partnership with lawman Jeff Milton, with the pair bringing down several outlaws during their time together.
John Wesley Hardin was an American Old West outlaw, gunfighter, and controversial folk icon. Hardin often got into trouble with the law from an early age. He killed his first man at the age of 15, claiming he did so in self-defense.
A potter's field, paupers' grave or common grave is a place for the burial of unknown, unclaimed or indigent people. "Potter's field" is of Biblical origin, referring to Akeldama, stated to have been purchased after Judas Iscariot's suicide by the chief priests of Jerusalem with the coins that had been paid to Judas for his identification of Jesus. The priests are stated to have acquired it for the burial of strangers, criminals, and the poor, the coins paid to Judas being considered blood money. Prior to Akeldama's use as a burial ground, it had been a site where potters collected high-quality, deeply red clay for the production of ceramics, thus the name potters' field.
Hueco Tanks is an area of low mountains and historic site in El Paso County, Texas, in the United States. It is located in a high-altitude desert basin between the Franklin Mountains to the west and the Hueco Mountains to the east. Hueco is a Spanish word meaning hollows and refers to the many water-holding depressions in the boulders and rock faces throughout the region. Due to the unique concentration of historic artifacts, plants and wildlife, the site is under protection of Texas law; it is a crime to remove, alter, or destroy them.
Boot Hill, or Boothill, is the given name of many cemeteries, chiefly in the Western United States. During the 19th and early 20th century it was a common name for the burial grounds of gunfighters, or those who "died with their boots on".
Mount Moriah Cemetery on Mount Moriah in Deadwood, South Dakota, is the burial place of Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, Seth Bullock and other notable figures of the Wild West.
Fort Bliss National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery in West Texas, located at Fort Bliss, a U.S. Army post adjacent to the city of El Paso. Administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs, it encompasses 82.1 acres (33.2 ha), and as of 2014, had over 50,000 interments. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.
Northeast El Paso is part of the city of El Paso, Texas and is located north of Central El Paso, and east of the Franklin Mountains. Its southern boundary is variously given as Fred Wilson Boulevard or Cassidy Road and Van Buren Avenue, and it extends northward to the New Mexico state line; some portions of this region lie outside the city limits, including parts of Franklin Mountains State Park and areas of Fort Bliss: the Logan Heights area of Fort Bliss around Chapin High School and Castner Range National Monument, an old firing range northwest of Hondo Pass Drive and Gateway South Boulevard. Development of Northeast El Paso, which had begun before the Second World War around the Logan Heights area, started in earnest during the 1950s, when many homes were demolished in the process of the construction of Interstate 10. It is one of the more ethnically diverse areas of town due to a high concentration of military families. Northeast El Paso has historically not developed at a rate comparable to East El Paso and Northwest El Paso, but in recent years, it has seen an increase in development. It is expected that the population in Northeast El Paso will grow more rapidly as a result of the troop increase for Fort Bliss in the coming years. Northeast El Paso has gained recognition throughout the city for schools like Parkland, Irvin, Andress and Chapin because of their outstanding athletic programs.
John Henry Selman was sometimes identified as an outlaw and sometimes a working lawman of the Old West. He is best known as the man who fatally shot John Wesley Hardin in the Acme Saloon in El Paso, Texas, on August 19, 1895.
Jefferson Davis Milton was an Old West lawman and a son of Confederate Governor of Florida John Milton. He was the first officer appointed to the U.S. Immigration Service Border Patrol in 1924.
Ernest "Diamond Dick" St. Leon was a French-American law enforcement officer and a member of the Texas Rangers, known prominently during the 1880s as one of its finest undercover officers. He received the nickname "Diamond Dick" from his fellow officers due to his habit of wearing diamonds on his uniform.
Abraham G. Graham, known by the alias "Shotgun" John Collins, was a little-known though well-associated gunfighter and outlaw of the American Old West.
Williams Ranch is the oldest settlement in Mills County, Texas, now a ghost town, with the oldest known cemetery in the vicinity dating back to the mid-19th century. The location is about 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Mullin, and 8 miles (13 km) northwest of Goldthwaite, the county seat. When originally settled, Williams Ranch was located in the far southern portion of what is now Brown County.
Boothill Graveyard is a small graveyard of at least 250 interments located in Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona. Also known as the "Old City Cemetery", the graveyard was used after 1883 only to bury outlaws and a few others. It had a separate Jewish cemetery, which is nearby.
John Jackson Helm, was a lawman, cowboy, gunfighter, and inventor in the American Old West. He fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War, but worked as a lawman for the Union during Reconstruction. He was an active participant in the Sutton–Taylor feud in and about Dewitt County, Texas; and was killed in an ambush related to the feud and perpetrated by Jim Taylor and John Wesley Hardin.
Florida J. Wolfe, also known as "Lady Flo", was an African-American socialite, cattle rancher and philanthropist in El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez.
Desecration of graves involves intentional acts of vandalism, theft or destruction in places where humans are interred: this includes body snatching. It has long been considered taboo to desecrate or otherwise violate graves or grave markers of the deceased, and in modern times it has been prohibited by law. Desecration is defined as violating something that is sacred.
Benjamin Shacklett Dowell was a Mexican–American War veteran and the first mayor of the city of El Paso, Texas.
