A German merchant in Camptown Cemetery
Here rests in God
my
dear husband
​
Karl Schneider
​
Born
3. Feb. 1824
Deceased
[missing part]July 1881
[missing part] the dead.
[missing part] Lord.
We met with Charles Swenson from the "Texas 10" who researched the case and we visited each grave site. A summary of Charles' research is posted below. Millheim had no cemetery of its own in 1881. Camptown also served as a burial site of Union soldiers, and many Germans in Millheim had Unionist leanings during the Civil War. Therefore, Camptown may have been a choice for a temporary burial site.
With help of the local Millheim community, we also found that Schneider's wife Therese purchased the grave site on the German cemetery in Millheim around 1902. Perhaps his remains were then transferred from Brenham to Millheim, over 20 years after his death.
"How to Be Buried in Two Places at Once" by Charles Swenson
Karl Schneider from Millheim in Austin County died unexpectedly on a business trip to Brenham on July 4th, 1881. The Brenham Banner reports that he died of apoplexy, the Texas Volksbote contains no report or obituary. For some reason, Schneider's gravestone is located at the Camptown Cemetery—a local black cemetery in Brenham. It was damaged but is still legible once you clean it up (left).
​
What makes the case of Carl Schneider mysterious is a cenotaph honoring the same person in Millheim at a community graveyard, 25 miles away (right). How does it match up?
