Located off state highway 46 on Farm to Market Road 311 in the Texas Hill Country, the Smithson Valley Cemetery is the final resting place for German immigrants who settled the Smithson Valley community area. At one time, the community had a store, post office, blacksmith shop, one-room schoolhouse, dancehall, bowling alley and saloon. Many descendants of Johann Startz, one of the first 240 founders of New Braunfels and citizen of the Republic of Texas, are buried here. In 1876 the cemetery began as a family ranch cemetery for the burial of baby Karl Ohlrich, Jr., the young son of Heinrich Pantermuehl’s sister, Louise Pantermuehl Ohlrich. Heinrich Pantermuehl (1842-1921), husband to Johann Startz’s granddaughter, Pauline (1856-1933), formally deeded this land for a cemetery in 1898. The landscape of the Smithson Valley Cemetery is representative of other German family cemeteries found throughout central Texas. Graves face east to west arranged in uniform rows with curbing, perpetuating a custom widely used in Germany. Granite, marble and limestone gravestones are present, along with several unmarked graves thought to belong to children. Many inscriptions are in German. The grave of a young soldier, Herbert Startz (1893-1918), is decorated with a blanket of shells believed to be the signature of German cement finisher Henry Theodore Mordhorst. The Smithson Valley Cemetery Association, organized in 1970, maintains this historic cemetery, a reminder of german immigration and settlement in the hill country.
Smithson Valley Cemetery
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Smithson Valley Cemetery is a historical marker in New Braunfels, Comal County, dedicated in 2013. It is one of 106 historical markers documented in Comal County in the Texas Historical Commission Atlas, among 256 historic sites cataloged across the county.
The site sits at 29.8054, -98.3349 near New Braunfels. The nearest cataloged historic site is Pantermuel House (historical marker), about 0.6 miles away. Others within a short drive include Hill County Memorial Gardens, Doehne Cemetery, and Karl Weidner Cemetery.
This record corresponds to Texas Historical Commission Atlas #5507017571. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.
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