On Walkabout At: Evergreen Cemetery In El Paso, Texas
|Concordia Cemetery is easily the most well known and historic graveyard in El Paso, but its not the only historic cemetery in the city. Evergreen Cemetery which is only a short distance from Concordia is not well known, but is nearly as historic as Concordia:
Evergreen Cemetery dates back to 1894, is 47 acres in size, and is backdropped by the Franklin Mountains:
Most of the cemetery consists of dirt graves but a few sections of the cemetery does have some grass:
Something interesting about the cemetery is that it is the final resting place of a number of Confederate military veterans along with veterans from more recent wars:
Here is the section of the cemetery with a number of Confederate graves with gravestones with the initial CSA which stands for Confederate States of America:
Here is one of the Confederate graves:
Some of the grades had the Confederate States of America spelled out on it:
During my walk around Evergreen Cemetery I did not see any memorial to the Union soldiers from the Civil War. There was plenty of the more typical American graves present though:
There was another section of the cemetery that had graves from the Woodmen of the World:
I had never even heard of this organization before visiting Evergreen Cemetery. After doing a little web searching here is what I found out about the Woodmen:
Woodmen of the World is a fraternal organization based in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, that operates a large privately held insurance company for its members.
Its history includes the erection of numerous distinctive tombstones depicting tree stumps across the country prior to 1930, a program to donate flags, and broadcast interests that were to own the first television station where Johnny Carson worked. [Wikipedia]
Speaking of fraternal organizations, there was of course Freemasons buried at Evergreen as well:
There was also a section of the cemetery dedicated to deceased nuns:
The final thing of interest I saw in Evergreen Cemetery was the section dedicated to the Magoffin family which was one of the most prominent families in the city’s early days:
I am sure there is plenty more of interesting history to be found in Evergreen Cemetery, but unfortunately there is very little written about the cemetery that can be found on the Internet. So I was limited to walking around and trying to identify anything of interest. The much more well known Concordia Cemetery has much written about it and the graveyard has plenty of historical markers within the cemetery to point out to visitors the various historic graves. This is not something that Evergreen has going for it. Really the only historical tidbit I could find about Evergreen Cemetery was that former Mexican President Victoriano Huerta was buried in the cemetery. I walked around trying to find it but I could not locate it. If anyone has any good links of historical interest about Evergreen Cemetery please feel free to share in the comments section because I would definitely like to learn more about this cemetery.
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For a cemetery called “Evergreen” it is sad to see if so barren and dry. For a last resting place, one would surely pick a beautiful spot and “Evergreen” seems to make a grieving family member feel peaceful about burying a loved one there. I have a hard time locating information on the internet about Evergreen, to locate family members’ graves there.
Patty, thanks for commenting. I could not find a register of people buried at Evergreen either on the Internet. I recommend giving the cemetery a call at (915) 532-5511 and maybe they can help you locate a particular grave you are looking for.
i have family buried at evergreen and recently visited the cemetary. . i noticed they have a section along the edge of alameda street that is mostly for infants and young children. i also noticed they seemed to cluster all the spanish surnames along the edges of the cemetary. appears like segregation was being praticed to me. this bothers me. was this intentional i wonder?
Why isn’t “Evergreen” green? It makes no sense that a cemetery would be so desolate looking even if El Paso is a desert.
FindAGrave has about 55% of the tombstones at Evergreen Cemetery documented:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=3479&CScntry=4&CSst=46&CScnty=2590&
BillionGraves is now recruiting volunteers to document tombstones and has 76 documented in the Evergreen Cemetery so far:
http://billiongraves.com/pages/cemeteries/Evergreen-Cemetery/104906#cemetery_id=104906&lim=0&num=25&action=browse
Hopefully they will soon be all documented for people looking for their relatives.
Every time I search for family members at Evergreen Cemetery on Alameda in El Paso, I feel so saddened by the bleakness of this once-beautiful and green cemetery. Who is in charge, I wonder. A last resting place should feel like a home. I never have any luck locating my Grandparent’s grave there. Still searching.
Evergreen is a dust pile, my family graves go back 3 generation .. it was a dust bowl when my grandfather was placed in the ground in 1978 .. it was a tad greener then but today it is very sad … only sand…my uncle is there my grandparents are there and my great grandparent are there as well…
My grandfather Samuel McGarrity is buried here. He was a country lawyer in Louisiana. In April, 1915 he killed Marshal JS Howell of Arcadia, La. and was acquitted. One year later he was shot in the shoulder with a shotgun. He and my Grandmother Adele moved to Texas where he died in 1919.