| Marker Text |
According to local tradition, in the winter of 1859, 23-year-old John Davis joined a community wagon train headed for work in the pine forests of Bastrop County. Davis, sprayed by a skunk during the night, began running wildly through the camp. He was mistaken for a Comanche intruder and accidentally shot to death. His father, Jenkins Davis, buried his son here, on 2.3 acres he purchased near Boggy Creek and his Manchaca home. John's 1859 burial is the earliest recorded here. In 1876 Jenkins Davis, a member of the early area Onion Creek Masonic Lodge No. 220, donated the 2.3 acres to the lodge, and the site became a community graveyard. First called Boggy Creek and later Boggy Creek Masonic Cemetery, the graveyard had become known simply as Masonic Cemetery by the 1960s. Enlarged over the years, the cemetery contains about 6.6 acres and more than 1,200 burials. Among the people buried here are area pioneer settlers and their descendants; members of fraternal organizations such as the Masons and Woodmen of the World; and veterans of the Civil War, Spanish-American War, World Wars I & II, and the Korean Conflict. Onion Creek Lodge No. 220, A. F. & A. M., continues to maintain the cemetery. Sesquicentennial of Texas Statehood 1845 - 1995 |
