Bennett Cemetery sits atop a small rise one mile north of the village of Sweet Home in Lavaca County, Texas. From the passing road, only twenty or so old tombstones can be seen weathering in the Texas sun. If they could talk, what a story they could tell. They could tell you that this cemetery was old when the present "new" Sweet Home was founded in the late 1880's. That the cemetery was not new when "old" Sweet Home was built in the 1850's. That this graveyard heard the very first and the very last whistles of trains passing through Sweet Home.

It is the final resting place of soldiers from the War of 1812 through World War II, of some of the earliest settlers of western Lavaca County, of some of the first cowboys and cattlemen who pioneered Texas cattle drives to Kansas and points far beyond even before the Civil War, and of some of the very first Czech and German pioneers who came to Lavaca County in the second half of the nineteenth century to begin a new life in a new land.

This old burying ground is still now. It fell into disuse and became overgrown with weeds, poison ivy and all kinds of thorny brush. Cattle grazed here and knocked over monuments. Stones fell as a result of fallen trees, grasping vines, tunneling ants, and animals. Some descendants gave up and moved the gravestones of their ancestors to other cemeteries. Finally, in 1999 a group was formed to try to save it. Today we are incorporated as a Texas non-profit corporation and are recognized by the I.R.S. as a section 501(c)(3) organization. We call ourselves "The Friends of Bennett Cemetery, Inc."

To learn more about our efforts, come in for a look through these pages and then we hope you will take a leisurely walk through the cemetery, one of the oldest and most historic cemeteries in western Lavaca County. We also invite you, as a historical preservationist, to help us save this graveyard with your donation.

A few words to those who have ancestors here, "You have a priceless heritage to preserve."