Graveside Chat
Yesterday I went on a photowalk with the MeetUp group Laid Back Photography and socializing. They went to Plummers Cemetery in east Austin after rescheduling last week due to rain. A graveyard seemed like an appropriate place for a photowalk on All Hallows' Day/All Saints' Day/Dia de los Muertos. This chair was in the middle of the cemetery. I can only guess someone has used it as a place to sit to visit their beloved departed. This was an interesting cemetery to visit and our photowalk organizer shared this info about the cemetery.
Plummers Cemetery on Springdale Road is one such green space owned by the City of Austin and kept up by the Parks and Recreation Department. It was acquired in 1957, when the city also obtained nearby Givens Park on East 12th Street.
The African American cemetery was once known as Mount Calvary, not to be confused with the cemetery by the same name at Interstate 35 and East Dean Keeton Street.
Tom Sylvester Plummer purchased it in 1923 from Thomas Plummer (his father?) for $300. He sold it 34 years later to the city for a nominal $10.
Born in 1902, Tom Sylvester Plummer was the first black Travis County deputy sheriff. He was widely recognized for the twin .44s he always carried. Plummer said he did so because no one was accustomed to being arrested by a black law officer.
Plummer owned several East Austin businesses and was deeply involved in community service. He died in 1986 and was interred in the cemetery that bears his family name.
