Who rests here

Notable burials

A Historic Texas Cemetery is a history book with the pages standing up. These are some of the people whose stones tell the story of Johnson City and Blanco County.

When the Texas Historical Commission placed its marker here in 2002 it counted “over 250 graves.” Find a Grave volunteers have since photographed and indexed nearly 1,500 memorials on this ground, from the 1890s to the present. Most of those people were not famous. They were ranchers and storekeepers, teachers and mothers, the county's first doctors and its longest-serving officials — the ordinary, essential people of a Hill Country town.

This page is a beginning, not a complete roll. Entries marked “being confirmed” come from transcriptions and published sources that have not yet been checked against the lodge's own interment record. If you can correct or add to any of them, please write to us.

Look someone up

The lodge's burial index (every recorded interment, with section and plot)
Find a Grave — this cemetery (photographed memorials, GPS for many graves)
TXGenWeb transcription (stones read on the ground through 1994, with section and lot numbers)
BillionGraves
Ask the lodge for a plat location

Rangers and lawmen

The frontier was still close when this ground was bought. The men who policed it are here.

A hand-tinted tintype of a bearded man in a plaid shirt and wide-brimmed felt hat, seated with his hands folded, long identified as Texas Ranger Rufe Perry. — A tintype long identified as Rufe Perry. A descendant of his sister has questioned the identification; the family's confirmed portraits show an older man. If you know this image's provenance, please write to us.

Capt. Cicero Rufus “Rufe” Perry

August 23, 1822 – October 7, 1898 · Section C13-3, Historic

Texas Ranger; captain, Company D, Frontier Battalion

Born in Alabama, Perry came to Texas in 1833 with his parents and his siblings Elizabeth Jane, Asa, and William, first to Cole's Settlement in Washington County. At twelve he was carrying dispatches for Sam Houston in the War for Independence; he was at the siege of Bexar and, by his own account and a Blanco newspaper's, carried a musket at San Jacinto as a boy. By 1836 he was riding with Capt. William W. Hill's rangers on Yegua Creek, the youngest man in the company.

In August 1844, fighting Comanches on the Nueces under John Coffee Hays, Perry took three wounds and was left for dead. Hays's men, fearing another attack, cached his body in rocks and brush against the wolves and rode for San Antonio, meaning to come back and bury him. He revived in the night, worked his way out, and walked roughly 120 miles unarmed and without food or water. He reached San Antonio four days later, as his companions were saddling to go back for his body, and was fit for service within the month. Over his life he was said to have taken twenty wounds from arrows and seven from bullets; the Comanche chiefs, one obituary claimed, knew him as "Great Brave."

He married Margaret Ann Rousseau in Bastrop County on June 24, 1845, and they raised eight children before the family settled in Blanco County. He served as a second lieutenant in Bell's Texas Mounted Volunteers in the Mexican War, as a private in Hays's company of the 26th Brigade in the Confederate service, and fought at Deer Creek in 1873. In 1874, at fifty-one, he was commissioned captain of Company D of the Frontier Battalion, the Texas Rangers reorganized as a standing force, and led it until his health failed. He left the ranger service in 1886.

He died at Hye, Blanco County, on the evening of October 7, 1898, at seventy-six, in feeble health and living on his Texas and Mexican War pensions. Papers from Burnet to Beeville carried the news of the death of "one of the oldest Texas rangers, and perhaps the most remarkable Indian fighter that ever figured in the fierce battles on the frontier of the Lone Star State." He was buried in the historic section, where he shares a plot with his grandson William Hiram Shipp; his wife Margaret Ann Rousseau Perry (1832–1905) chose to be buried at Hye, where their daughter Jennie also lies in Rocky Creek Cemetery. His daughter Jennie Perry Shipp obtained the military headstone for him in 1944.

On the stones

Main headstone: Captain of the Texas Rangers 1874

Military marker: 2nd Lieut. Bell's Tx. Mtd. Vols., Mex. War

Military marker: Pvt., Mtd. Rifles, Hays' Co., 26th Brigade, Confederate States Army

Sources: Johnson City Masonic Cemetery interment record (lodge Cemetery Committee), 2026; Handbook of Texas: Perry, Cicero Rufus; Find a Grave memorial 5006524, with obituaries from the Burnet Bulletin (Oct. 20, 1898) and the Beeville Bee (Dec. 9, 1898); Memoir of Capt'n C. R. Perry of Johnson City, Texas; TXGenWeb Blanco County: Rufus Perry, Texas Ranger

Veterans

From the War of 1812 to Vietnam, according to the state marker.

The veterans

War of 1812 through Vietnam

The lodge's interment record marks 243 veterans among the graves, and names a war for most of them: 92 of the Second World War, 35 of the First, 29 of Korea, 17 of Vietnam, 13 of the Civil War, 4 of the Mexican War, one of the Spanish-American War, and one of Desert Storm. Every one of them can be found in the burial index by war. The War of 1812 veteran the state marker mentions is not among them under that name; the 2002 designation file at the Texas Historical Commission should say who he is. When the Daughters of the American Revolution laid wreaths here in December 2023, they placed them on 120 veterans' graves.

Sources: Johnson City Masonic Cemetery interment record (lodge Cemetery Committee), 2026; Historic Texas Cemetery marker (HMDB); Wreaths Across America — Johnson City Historic Masonic Cemetery

Pvt. Walter Tips Lambert

June 7, 1888 – October 9, 1951 · Section C08-8, Historic

142nd Infantry, 36th Division, A.E.F. — First World War

Son of Samuel B. and Margaret Lambert, Walter went to France with the 142nd Infantry of the 36th “Texas” Division, the regiment formed in 1917 from the 7th Texas and 1st Oklahoma Infantry that fought at St. Étienne-à-Arnes and in the Meuse-Argonne in October 1918. He came home to Johnson City and lived out his days here, and is buried in the family lot in the historic section.

Sources: Johnson City Masonic Cemetery interment record (lodge Cemetery Committee), 2026; USGenWeb transcription of the cemetery; Johnson City Lodge No. 561 — history of the lodge

Johnnie W. Gipson, USMC

May 16, 1947 – February 5, 1971 · Section J18-3, Historic

Killed in Vietnam, February 1971

The transcribed stones record a Marine, Johnnie W. Gipson, killed in the Vietnam War in February 1971. The lodge's own record gives his birth as May 16, 1947 and his grave as J18-3, but does not yet mark his service; the lodge is checking the entry and would welcome word from his family.

Being confirmed against the lodge's interment record.

Sources: Johnson City Masonic Cemetery interment record (lodge Cemetery Committee), 2026; USGenWeb transcription of the cemetery (lot G-18); Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund — Wall of Faces

Founders of the cemetery

The brethren who bought the land and were the first to need it.

William Henry Withers

April 22, 1839 – March 4, 1902 · Section C06-5, Historic

One of the three brethren who bought the cemetery land, 1892

Withers, with Joseph Bird and G. M. Nash, took title to this ground on the lodge's behalf in December 1892, and was buried in it ten years later. The lodge's record marks him a Mason and a veteran (Confederate, Civil War). A transcription of the stones appears to record a son, Robert Lee Withers (1875–1891), whose death a year before the purchase would suggest either a family burial already on the tract or a reinterment; that entry is still being checked.

Sources: Johnson City Masonic Cemetery interment record (lodge Cemetery Committee), 2026; Historic Texas Cemetery marker (HMDB); TXGenWeb transcription of the cemetery

The lodge

Past Masters and charter-era brethren of Johnson City Lodge No. 561.

Samuel B. Lambert

December 15, 1847 – October 31, 1904 · Section C08-1, Historic

Eight times Worshipful Master of Johnson City Lodge No. 561

Born in Gonzales County to Tennessee pioneers Thomas Lambert and Mary “Pollie” Nobles, Lambert married Margaret Jane Bass and brought his family to the Pedernales valley in the mid-1870s, when Johnson City was barely laid out. He was a founding member of the lodge in 1882 and sat in the East eight times, in 1883, 1887, 1888, 1890, 1891, 1893, 1895, and 1896, a record no brother matched in the lodge's first half-century. He was Worshipful Master the year the county seat moved to Johnson City.

He fell ill in 1904 and died on October 31 at fifty-six. He lies in lot C-8 of the historic section beside an infant son lost in 1898; his widow Margaret outlived him by twenty-eight years. His son Walter Tips Lambert (1888–1951), a private in the 142nd Infantry of the 36th Division in France, came home to Johnson City and rests in the same lot. The lodge's interment record gives his birth as December 15, 1847 and marks him a charter member of the lodge and a veteran (Texas Cavalry).

Sources: Johnson City Masonic Cemetery interment record (lodge Cemetery Committee), 2026; Johnson City Lodge No. 561 — history of the lodge; USGenWeb transcription of the cemetery (lots C-8)

Charter-era brethren of Lodge No. 561

The men who founded the lodge in 1882

The lodge's interment record marks two of the men who received the charter on December 16, 1882 among the graves: Samuel B. Lambert and Hardin Russell, both in the historic section. Others of that generation rest here with their families in the section their own lodge platted. Not all: charter member William McCarty died on the cattle trail near the New Mexico line in 1889, three years before the ground was bought, and lies where he fell. G. M. Nash, who helped buy the land, has not been located in the record.

Sources: Johnson City Masonic Cemetery interment record (lodge Cemetery Committee), 2026; Johnson City Lodge No. 561 — history of the lodge

Hardin Russell

August 15, 1839 – March 17, 1904 · Section F02-5, Historic

Charter member of Johnson City Lodge No. 561; Confederate veteran

The lodge's interment record marks Hardin Russell as one of two charter members of Johnson City Lodge No. 561 buried here, with Samuel B. Lambert, and as a Confederate veteran of the Civil War. He was born in 1839, came of age as the war began, and lived to see the lodge he helped charter in 1882 buy this ground and fill its first section. He rests in lot F02-5.

Sources: Johnson City Masonic Cemetery interment record (lodge Cemetery Committee), 2026; Johnson City Lodge No. 561 — history of the lodge

Past Masters of Lodge No. 561

23 brethren who sat in the East

The lodge's interment record marks 23 Past Masters of Johnson City Lodge No. 561 among the graves, from Samuel Bruce Lambert, who first took the chair in 1883, to men who served within living memory. Two of them, Lambert and Hardin Russell, are recorded as charter members of the lodge itself.

Buried here: Rollie Martin Adams (P15-5, Historic); Ernest Bauerle (K08-2, Historic); Hans Boecking (O10-3, Historic); George Eldridge, Jr. Byars (M16-8, Historic); George Eldridge, Sr. Byars (M16-5, Historic); William Jay Chapman (E11-2, Historic); George Harrison, Sr. Earley (B16-7, Historic); Nathaniel Truman Fawcett (L18-4, Historic); Carroll Leslie Fuqua (E19-5, Historic); Ernest Francis Harlan (CA6-5, Casparis A); Bennie Len Hudson (DC5-6, Watson); William Alvie Hunnicutt (B19-3, Historic); Benjamin Franklin Jarvis (F19-2, Historic); Samuel Bruce Lambert (C08-1, Historic); James Byrne Leonard (E20-2, Historic); Alvie Eggleston Mayfield (F17-2, Historic); Thomas Worth Mayfield (K03-1, Historic); James Ralph Moss (DC5-1, Watson); William Hinchey Rawlings (A11-2, Historic); George Oliver Stearns (DC4-1, Watson); William Eugene Stevenson (C10-1, Historic); Nathaniel Thomas Stubbs (E06-1, Historic); Otfried Walter William Wittkohl (O02-5, Historic).

Sources: Johnson City Masonic Cemetery interment record (lodge Cemetery Committee), 2026

Public service

County judges, physicians, and the people who ran a small county seat.

Dr. James Franklin Barnwell

October 23, 1874 – June 16, 1934 · Section E05-3, Historic

Physician

Dr. Barnwell came to Johnson City from Bosque County in the late 1890s, when the town had six saloons, five other doctors, and no hospital. In 1913 he finished a two-story hospital-home on the square, and the town credits him with its first radio, first indoor plumbing, first electric light, first automobile, and first X-ray machine. After his death in 1934 his widow kept the house as a boarding house; it still stands as the Barnwell House, and a Texas historical marker downtown bears his name. The lodge record marks him a Mason.

Sources: Johnson City Masonic Cemetery interment record (lodge Cemetery Committee), 2026; TXGenWeb transcription of the cemetery; Texas historical marker: Dr. James F. Barnwell; “Johnson City's Barnwell House rich with town history,” Austin American-Statesman, July 30, 2011

Judge Marlin B. Barrow

June 12, 1906 – April 22, 1980 · Section E17-3, Historic

Blanco County Judge

The lodge's interment record and the transcribed stones both identify Marlin Barrow as a county judge; his stone reads simply “Judge.” The years of his service on the commissioners court have not yet been confirmed from county records.

Being confirmed against the lodge's interment record.

Sources: Johnson City Masonic Cemetery interment record (lodge Cemetery Committee), 2026; TXGenWeb transcription of the cemetery

Founding families

Names that are also on the streets, the ranches, and the county maps.

Tom Jesse Johnson

May 24, 1880 – January 26, 1953 · Section D12-1, Historic

Youngest son of Sam Ealy Johnson Sr.; uncle of President Lyndon B. Johnson

The lodge's interment record lists Tom Jesse Johnson, a Mason, born May 24, 1880 and died January 26, 1953, in lot D12-1 of the historic section. Thomas Jesse Johnson, born in 1880, was the youngest of Sam Ealy Johnson Sr. and Eliza Bunton Johnson's children and an uncle of the thirty-sixth President. Most of that family rests in the Johnson Family Cemetery at Stonewall; Tom is the closest Johnson kin in the Masonic Cemetery.

Sources: Johnson City Masonic Cemetery interment record (lodge Cemetery Committee), 2026; TXGenWeb transcription of the cemetery; Samuel Ealy Johnson Sr. (family)

Harriett “Hattie” Casparis Sharp

November 30, 1899 – February 19, 1992 · Section L12-2, Historic

Benefactor of the Casparis section

Harriett Wagner Casparis Sharp, “Miss Hattie,” lies in lot L12-2 of the historic section beside her husband George Washington Sharp (1897–1954), an Army veteran of both world wars, in a lot George bought. She kept an office for many years in the Sharp Building in Johnson City as an accountant and real-estate agent. Her land passed to her nephews: the Pedernales place called “El Regalo” to William Howard “Bill” Casparis (1931–2016), and the tract south of the old cemetery to his brother John Christian “Jake” Casparis (1926–1989), who gave it to the lodge in her name. The lodge raised a marble monument to her in the Casparis section, with the flagpole beside it. Every grave in the Casparis sections owes its place to her.

The lodge's later account says she bequeathed the land to her nephew, but she outlived him by three years and lots in Casparis Section A were already being sold by 1988, so the gift came in her lifetime. The gift deed, Blanco County Deed Records Vol. 113, p. 94, will give the date.

Sources: Johnson City Masonic Cemetery interment record (lodge Cemetery Committee), 2026; Standard Operating Procedure for the Johnson City Masonic Lodge No. 561 Cemetery (lodge document, c. 2004); Find a Grave: William Howard “Bill” Casparis; Unofficial Guide to Johnson City (the Sharp Building)

The Casparis family

Ranchers, donors of the cemetery's second section

John Christian Casparis (1849–1904) and Sarah Catherine Cassell Casparis (1854–1937), born in Baltimore, rest in lot F07 of the historic section, the head of a family that fills three lots there. Johnny Brooks Casparis (1908–2013), the eldest of John S. “King” and Ella Smith Casparis's five children, was Lyndon Johnson's classmate and debate partner at Johnson City High School, spent forty-five years as head cashier for Western Union in San Antonio, and was buried in the family lot (K15) at 104. Howard Milton “Big Red” and Regina Smith Casparis's sons include John Christian “Jake” (1926–1989), an Army veteran of the Second World War, who gave the lodge the land in Miss Hattie's name, and William Howard “Bill” (1931–2016), an Army veteran of Korea, whose knowledge of the Pedernales country is acknowledged in the state's history of the Pedernales Falls area; the brothers lie side by side in lot G03. The heirs' later sale of the eastern tract gave the cemetery the room it has today.

Sources: Johnson City Masonic Cemetery interment record (lodge Cemetery Committee), 2026; Find a Grave: Sarah Catherine Casparis; Find a Grave: William Howard Casparis; Obituary of Johnny Brooks Casparis, San Antonio Express-News, 2013; Obituary of Lee B. Casparis, Crofts-Crow Funeral Home, 2015

The Stribling family

Pedernales valley ranching family

Emory Stribling (1879–1944), Francis Clayton Stribling (1900–1977), and Olla Chapman Stribling (b. 1882) are among the Striblings buried here. The family ranched the Pedernales valley for generations; Mary Frances Stribling married A. W. Moursund Jr., founder of the Johnson City State Bank, and John Stribling Moursund's “Blanco County Families for One Hundred Years” remains the standard reference on the county's early settlers.

Sources: TXGenWeb transcription of the cemetery

The Crider family

Early Blanco County settlers

Dan A. Crider (1860–1939), John N. Crider (1863–1942), Mary Ottie Crider (1869–1932), William Robert Crider (1891–1972), Walter S. Crider (1893–1969), and Manley W. Crider (1899–1974) are among the Criders here, three generations of one of the county's founding families.

Sources: TXGenWeb transcription of the cemetery

Help us finish the roll

Do you know a story that belongs here?

Family Bibles, obituaries, service records, a photograph of a stone before it weathered — these are how a cemetery keeps its memory. The lodge is compiling a roll of veterans by conflict and a fuller account of the families in the historic section. Anything you can share will be credited and kept.

Share a story or a record