Letter to the Editor, 1881

OUR GRAVEYARD 

To the Editor of the Corpus Christi Ledger: Referring to the article in your letter of the 27th inst., headed "A Public Disgrace", I have a few words to say relative to it, as you suggest that the matter be remedied by taking a public subscription. Some two years since my wife, realizing as you do, that the public cemetery was a disgrace to the City, started in person to raise subscriptions to repair it and keep it in order for one year.  She met with very poor success, although she canvassed the entire City.  Some of the most wealthy citizens refused to give anything, saying they had no interest there; others, who could well afford to give $100 after subscribing three or four dollars, refused to pay it when called upon, and taken as a whole it was very up-hill work. 

She succeeded in getting enough to hire a man at $25 per month for six months to take charge of it, and during the time the money from the subscriptions lasted the cemetery looked neat and was devoid of weeks and underbrush.  I will start a subscription for the purpose of repairing the fence and keeping the grounds in repair for one year with ten dollars, payable in advance, if others will subscribe according to their ability in the same proportion, there will be no trouble to get an entirely new fence, and then have surplus enough to hire a man for a year to do nothing else but keep the grounds and fence in repair.

- Respectfully, E. H. Wheeler

 

Source: Semi-Weekly Ledger, Sunday, May 1, 1881, p.3 col. 3
Research by: Msgr. Michael A. Howell
Transcription by: Geraldine D. McGloin, Nueces County Historical Commission