La Joya Cemetery
Hidalgo Co. Cemeteries of Tx
Submitted by Frances Isbell
With Permission of Hidalgo Co. Historical Commission (2006)
To Search : Edit, Find, type in name, click on Find next
LOCATION: Leo and Garza Streets, between 5th and 6th Streets. in La Joya, Texas.
SURVEY: Pending
HISTORY: La Joya (Sp. "jewel"), formerly Tabasco, lies within the
ejidos, or town commons, of Old Reynosa, settled in 1749 by colonists from Northern Mexico.Tabasco Ranch was founded on Porcion 47, near the Rio Grande, just west of the ejidos, by Francisco de la Garza in 1855. A soldier of fortune, Garza purchased 245 acres from the original grantee, where he raised livestock and built irrigation canals. The community of Tabasco soon developed inside the ejidos beside the ranch.
Tabasco was a station and post office on the Hidalgo Branch of the St. Louis, Brownsville & Mexico Railroad in 1904. Devastating floods in 1908 and 1909 wiped out the Tabasco settlement, and the ranchers moved to higher ground, one mile north. In 1926 they incorporated their new community, choosing the name La Joya after a nearby natural lake.
Francisco de la Garza’s daughter, Julia Garza de la Rosa, donated two acres for the La Joya Cemetery. Some graves were transferred from the Tabasco and Treviño cemeteries at old Tabasco into the new La Joya Cemetery, and the old cemeteries were abandoned. The City of La Joya maintains La Joya Cemetery, which contains approximately 800 gravesites.