President Lyndon B. Johnson's Grave Site and Historical Park

The History of the Cemetery

Most of the people buried in the cemetery are related to Lyndon Johnson. His great grandmother, Priscilla Bunton, was the first person buried here. She passed away on April 28, 1905, during a violent storm, and her family was unable to cross the flooding river to lay her next to her husband in the Stonewall Community Cemetery. The family chose a grove of live oak trees on property belonging to Lyndon Johnson’s grandfather for Mrs. Bunton’s burial site. Her gravestone is the white Georgia marble marker with the lamb on top. In 1937, LBJ’s father, Sam Ealy Johnson, Jr., was buried in the cemetery. Sam Johnson had been a state legislator who was much admired for procuring pensions for Civil War veterans and securing passage of legislation to improve Hill Country roads. Sam had many friends and benefactors, and a large crowd came to pay their respects to him. Lyndon Johnson had just recently been elected as a U.S. congressman, so the funeral was attended by the Governor of Texas and other important dignitaries. In 1946, Frank Seaward, a rock mason from Stonewall, built the wall enclosing the cemetery. The wall was constructed to give identity to the cemetery, as well as to minimize the harmful effects of Pedernales River flooding. Repairs were made on the wall after major floods in 1952 and 1959.