Concordia Cemetery

Today, mom and I went to Concordia Cemetery in El Paso Texas. 65,000 people call this cemetery “home.” Filled with broken crosses, cracked concrete, trash, and one scrawny cat, it was a place of sadness because of the lack of care.

The history of the cemetery is interesting. In 1854, a chapel and cemetery were built on a ranch owned by Hugh Stephenson. The first person buried at Concordia was Hugh’s wife, Juanita. She was gored by a pet deer in 1856. Mr. Stephenson lost his ranch after the civil war but his son-in-law was able to purchase the property. He divided the property equally between Stephenson’s heirs. By the 1880s, various groups interested in establishing cemeteries were contacting the heirs. The city of El Paso bought its first part of the cemetery in 1882 as a burial ground for paupers.

By the 1890s, sections had been purchased by different groups and were designated Jesuit, Catholic, Masonic, Jewish, Black, Chinese, military, city, county and other ethnic and social groups.

Some of the residents of the cemetery are: Reverend Joseph Tays, an Episcopal missionary who found El Paso’s first Protestant church, Carlos Pinto, founder of five Catholic churches, James H. Bigg, WWI aviator for whom Biggs Field is named, to name a few. However, it is the grave of a gunfighter, John Wesley Hardin that gets all of the attention. It has been said that he killed more people than Billy the Kid and Jesse James.


Enjoy The Pictures