The Guenthers

In 1848, Carl Hilmar Guenther immigrated from Germany to the United States. After a short while spent in the midwest, he made his way to south Texas where he initially built a flour mill on Live Oak Creek in Fredericksburg, Texas. Within a few years, he moved his business to San Antonio and located it on the more powerful San Antonio River just south of the downtown area.

Carl Hilmar Guenther

Dorothea Pape Guenther

Pioneer Flour Mill has been a San Antonio landmark for over 100 years.

Davenport Cemetery

The first burial in Davenport Cemetery was Mary Ware Davenport in 1852. Mary was the wife of William Davenport, born in Virginia in 1820, who had come to Texas in 1843. The cemetery is on land that was part of a ranch they purchased on Cibolo Creek in 1851. In 1853, William married Nancy Young, daughter of John Young, who had served in the War of 1812. The cemetery is located just beyond the city limits of San Antonio.

JOHN YOUNG

BORN
In Knox Co.
Tenn.

Feb. 18
1793

DIED

May 16, 1879

MAGGIE

Dau. of
Wm. & N. DAVENPORT

BORN
Feb. 15, 1885

DIED
Oct. 23, 1887

ROBERT BORN Apr. 17, 1861 DIED Apr. 1867

MINNIE BORN Mar. 12, 1863 DIED Apr. 26, 1870

Children of William E. & Nancy DAVENPORT

Zion Chapel of Ease Cemetery

Recently I realized that I have numerous photos taken several years ago at the Zion Chapel of Ease & Cemetery on Hilton Head Island which I have never included here. For those of us who love cemeteries, this is a wonderful gem. This ethereal plot of land beside a busy thoroughfare on Hilton Head Island contains a cemetery established 250 years ago.

Originally a chapel of St. Luke’s Parish, it was established on May 23, 1767, and a chapel was built of wood shortly after 1786. "A well appointed chapel, 30x40 feet, of wood with brick foundations, boasting a sterling Communion Service imported from London, was erected in 1788 under the direction of Captain John Stoney and Isaac Fripp. It was consecrated in 1833. Members of the Barksdale, Baynard, Chaplin, Davant, Fripp, Kirk, Mathews, Pope, Scott, Stoney and Webb families worshipped there until 1868 when the church was abandoned and gradually destroyed." (Peeples, An Index to Hilton Head Island Names (Before the Contemporary Development), p. 43.)

SACRED
to the memory
of
SAMUEL B. WEBB
who
departed this life
2nd March 1836
aged 37 years

His amiable and pious character
was manifest in the warm
affection of husband, the tender
loved of parent, the sincerity and
kindness of friend and humanity
of master

Death's terror is the mountain
faith removes
Tis faith disarms destruction
Believe and look with triumph
on the tomb

SACRED

to the
Memory
of

MARTHA DAVANT

(unreadable) born
June 4th 1781 and
died June 6th 1818
aged 37 years & 2 days

From Hilton Head, A Sea Island Chronicle, p. 113-114, by Virginia C. Holmgren:

In 1867...the lovely silver chalices of the Communion Service, brought from England in 1834 had already disappeared. No doubt they had been stolen after the fall of Fort Walker. When next heard of they would be in a pawn shop (in Philadelphia) covered in rust and tarnish, and the man who bought them mistook them for antique goblets. When the tarnish was removed he was amazed to see the sacred Christian symbols and the words ‘Zion Chapel of Ease’. They were returned to the parish and are in use at St. Luke’s on Hilton Head.

Zion Chapel of Ease Cemetery