Webberville Ebenezer Baptist Church / Duty Cemetery, Bastrop/Travis County, Texas

Submitted by Tammy Owens

Cemeteries of Texas Coordinator: Dolores I. Bishop

This cemetery is located on the right side of FM 969, southeast of Austin in Travis County, 1 mile past the Webberville Grocery Store. The cemetery is to the left of the Webberville Ebenezer Baptist Church and is in part of a pasture. There is an iron fence around the Duty and Nash graves. The headstone for Glover is located under a tree a few feet from the others. Surveyed Jul 31 1998.

There are two plaques from the Historical Commission located by the property.

Texas Historical Commission Plaque

Webberville Ebenezer Baptist Church

This church traces its origin to the plight of Anglo-American John F. Weber who along with his African American wife and children settled in this sparsely populated area of Texas in 1839 to escape the racism they experienced in towns and cities. A community known as Weber Prairie consisted of plantation owners and their slaves developed here. Racial prejudices caused Webber to sell his land to Col. John Banks in 1851 and move his family to Mexico. In 1868 Matthew Duty donated an acre of land here for the purpose of building a church for the areas recently emancipated Americans. That year the Webberville Ebenezer Baptist Church was organized as a mission of St. John. Regular Missionary Baptist Association Charter members included Thomas Reads, Suns Johnson, Lowens Berry and Mary Green. The Rev. Wesley Barrow served as Ebenezer’s first pastor. In 1956 several members of the congregation left Ebenezer Church to form a church in Austin, which became known, as the New Light Ebenezer Baptist Church. Ebenezer Baptist Church remains active despite the relocation of many of Webberville’s families to nearby urban centers. Former members gather here on special occasions and holidays.

This community named for John F. Weber 1793-1882 who received a land grant in 1827 and settled in this area with his African American wife and children. A post office was established in 1846 for Webber’s Prairie and by 1853 the name changed to Weberville. Based on a cotton farming economy the town later included gristmills, cotton mills, general stores, schools, churches and a cemetery. The post office was discontinued in 1903. A ferry crossing on the Colorado River ceased operation in the 1920s.