County unveils marker for Antonio López Family Cemetery

Photo by Thelma Bazan Cuellar

Sonia Barrera, Guest Blogger

On Saturday, Nov. 19, nearly 200 descendants of San José’s founding family braved wind, rain, and unseasonable cold to dedicate an official Texas Historical Marker at the Antonio López Family Cemetery. Eight generations of López are laid to rest at the cemetery established circa 1903.

“This official historical marker represents a link to the past, not just for our family, but for all Texans," Laura De La Rosa, the event’s master of ceremonies and a three times great-granddaughter of Antonio Lopez, said. "It’s an acknowledgment of the role our ancestors played in settling this area and in helping to build this Great State of Texas.” 

The San Diego VFW Post 8931 Color Guard opened the ceremony, and Father George Thomas Parappallil, Pastor of Saint Joseph Mission in San José, provided a blessing. Duval County Judge E. B. Garcia read the Texas Historical Commission’s proclamation of the cemetery’s historical status. The Commission was represented by the local Duval County Historical Commission’s Chair Graciela Gonzales and Marker Committee Chair Lydia Canales. 

The historical marker now stands as a testament to the López family’s development of and lasting impact on the area along today’s FM 2295, about six miles east of Benavides. José Antonio López (known as Antonio) and his family settled there on 1,300 acres in 1875. They emigrated from San Pedro (now called Ciudád Miguél Alemán) in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas and made their living first by trapping the wild horses that roamed the area and raising sheep, later farming cotton and cattle ranching.

López Cemetery at San José.

When the patriarch Antonio passed away in 1903, he was laid to rest at the southwest corner of the homestead. That spot became the centerpiece of the 2.75-acre private family cemetery that remains in use. Most of the 20 or so families who live in the area can trace their roots back to the Antonio López family. 

The cemetery’s grave markers with bilingual engravings trace the family’s lineage, economic ups and downs, and military service, as well as shifts in language and professions, making the cemetery a well-preserved example of the Tejano experience in rural South Texas, and thus a part of the state’s rich cultural tapestry.

In 2017, over 100 members of the López clan began pooling their money, materials, expertise, equipment, and labor to improve and beautify their cemetery. As part of this effort, the Duval County Historical Commission applied for a Historic Texas Cemetery designation from the Texas Historical Commission, which was granted in August 2018. 

“The HTC designation is an official recognition of family and community graveyards," the Texas Historical Commission observes,  "Cemeteries are important keys to Texas’ past. They are reminders of settlement patterns and reveal information about historic events, religion, lifestyles, and genealogy.”

The Duval County Historical Commission then applied for a Texas Historical Marker, a stricter and more competitive process that required making a case for the site’s historical significance. The application was granted approval by the THC in January 2019. Severe production and the pandemic delayed the marker's arrival until September 25, 2021, when it was installed immediately that day by three of Antonio’s great-great-grandsons. Out of an abundance of caution, however, the dedication ceremony was delayed further until the pandemic—and summer heat—had abated. 

For the López clan, the dedication ceremony was more than just a historical marker. It memorialized the culmination of a six-year family journey to beautify and preserve their family legacy in Texas history.

The marker sits just inside the cemetery’s main gate and reads as follows:

ANTONIO LÓPEZ FAMILY CEMETERY

IN CONTINUOUS USE SINCE 1903, THIS CEMETERY IS THE FINAL RESTING PLACE OF RANCHO SAN JOSÉ FOUNDER JOSÉ ANTONIO LÓPEZ (1830–1903), KNOWN AS ANTONIO, ALONG WITH GENERATIONS OF HIS DESCENDANTS AND THEIR FAMILIES. ANTONIO AND HIS WIFE, MARÍA DE LOS SANTOS GONZÁLEZ  (b. 1832), EMIGRATED FROM SAN PEDRO (NOW CIUDÁD MIGUÉL ALEMÁN), MEXICO, IN 1866. THE FAMILY EVENTUALLY SETTLED HERE ON NEARLY 1,300 ACRES PURCHASED IN 1875, FIRST TRAPPING WILD HORSES AND RAISING SHEEP, THEN LATER FARMING COTTON AND CATTLE RANCHING. 

 

MARÍA DIED SOMETIME BETWEEN 1878 AND 1884. ANTONIO CONTINUED TO DEVELOP RANCHO SAN JOSÉ WITH HELP FROM HIS ADULT CHILDREN, AND HE MARRIED DOMINGA PEÑA IN 1886. IN 1903, ANTONIO DIED, DIVIDING HIS LAND BETWEEN HIS CHILDREN AND WIFE. PER FAMILY LORE, EACH CONTRIBUTED A SMALL PORTION OF THEIR INHERITED ACREAGE TO FULFILL ANTONIO’S WISH OF CREATING THIS FAMILY CEMETERY. HE WAS BURIED HERE ON HIS BELOVED RANCHO SAN JOSÉ.

 

A CHAIN-LINK FENCE DEMARCATES THE ORIGINAL ONE-ACRE BURIAL GROUND SET ASIDE BY ANTONIO’S HEIRS AT THE SOUTHWEST CORNER OF HIS HOMESTEAD, WHICH WAS OFFICIALLY RECORDED IN 1924 BY SON MARGARITO. INTERRED HERE WITH THEIR FATHER ARE CHILDREN JESÚS, PEDRO, MARGARITO, GREGORIA (SÁENZ), MARÍA (GARCÍA) AND JOSÉ MORENO, AND SECOND WIFE DOMINGA PEÑA. ANTONIO’S FIRST WIFE AND SONS, FRANCISCO AND FERMÁN, REST IN OTHER FAMILIAL CEMETERIES. IN 1964, THE CEMETERY WAS EXPANDED BY 1.75 ACRES DONATED BY GRANDSON ROSENDO LÓPEZ. AS THE FINAL RESTING PLACE FOR RANCHO SAN JOSÉ’S FOUNDER AND HIS DESCENDANTS, THE ANTONIO LÓPEZ FAMILY CEMETERY REMAINS A TANGIBLE REMINDER OF THE HERITAGE OF THE AREA.

HISTORIC TEXAS CEMETERY — 2018 

MARKER IS PROPERTY OF THE STATE OF TEXAS

For more information:

Information and news about the Antonio López Family Cemetery are shared at antoniolopezfamilycemetery.com and in a private Facebook group.

More about the cemetery’s history, including a burial listing and map, is available in a self-published book, Antonio López Family Cemetery: Resting Place of San José’s Founding Family, available at the Duval County Historical Commission. Anyone interested in purchasing a copy should use the cemetery’s website contact form.

For a fuller history of the López clan and details on life in the early settlements, see the book by Andrés Román Sáenz (1927–2006), a great-grandson of José Antonio Lopéz: Early Tejano Ranching in Duval County: The Family History of Ranchos San José and El Fresnillo (San Antonio: University of Texas Institute of Texan Cultures at San Antonio, 1999).