DONNA CITY CEMETERY

Hidalgo Co. Cemeteries of Tx

Submitted by Frances Isbell

With Permission  of Hidalgo Co. Historical Commission (2006)

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LOCATION: South Avenue between 13^th and 15^th Streets, Donna, Texas.

SURVEYED: Partial  

HISTORY: Donna lies in the La Blanca Grant given to Lino Cavazos by Mexico in 1834. It was a station on the Hidalgo Branch of the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railroad in 1904, when the city was founded. The first town lot was sold in 1908 by the Lott Town & Improvement Company.

Donna was named for Donna Hooks Fletcher, daughter of a townsite founder, Thomas Jackson Hooks. Other founders were A.F. Hester, Uriah Lott, Lon C. Hill and Sam Fordyce. La Blanca Agricultural Corporation (formed in 1902) developed the townsite. The city was incorporated on April 13, 1911.

Settlers began to move in by 1902. Ed Ruthven opened the first store there in 1907. He came from Run, short for RUthveN, a village seven miles south on the banks of the Rio Grande. After the 1909 flood, residents from Run moved up to the higher ground and settled West Donna. Run is considered as "Old Donna."

The city cemetery was probably established by 1910.  It measures 800 feet east to west, and 600 feet north-south, occupying 11 acres. Records of burials are incomplete; some records were lost in a fire. The city employs a Cemetery Coordinator and the Public Works Department maintains the grounds.