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Jolly Cemetery

Type: Cemetery

Rating:

(4.00)1

Cost: N/A

Years In Use: ??-1929

Open To The Public: Yes

Historical Marker: Yes

ADA Accessible: N/A

Bikes Allowed: N/A

Dogs Allowed: N/A

Interpretive Guide: N/A

Address: 8600 Spicewood Springs Road

City: Austin

County: Williamson

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The Jollyville area was named after some of the first settlers to make their home here. John Grey Jolly set up a blacksmith shop and a store in the community that he founded in 1866. He also set aside land for a school and for this cemetery, where both he and his wife Isabel are buried.

A wide view of Jolly Cemetery, showing most of the plots.

Jollyville had a school by 1878 and enrolled up to 35 pupils by 1903. Eventually, the town was incorporated into Austin, though the area retains the Jollyville name to this day.

The Highway 183 corridor has become so congested that the Jolly cemetery now sits smack in the middle of a huge collection of apartment buildings. A fence surrounds the cemetery, with a single entrance leading from a gravel trail extending from Spicewood Springs Road. Hanging from a tree at the entrance is a sign that reads "Jolly Cemetary" (sic). An historical marker sits along Spicewood Springs.

Up to half of the grave sites here include either no headstone or an illegible one. The earliest legible stone reads 1872. The last burial to take place here occurred in 1929.

A Texas Historical Marker at this location reads:

Photos

John Grey and Nancy Isabel Jolly are members of the family that gave the Jollyville area its name. (Photo by Austin Explorer)

The grave of Jennie Thorpe features a unique iron border with four flower pots. (Photo by Austin Explorer)

Many of the grave stones have fallen or have been knocked over. Margaret Evergreen Robinson's headstone is also the earliest visible. (Photo by Austin Explorer)

At the center of the cemetery sits the gated section for the Johns family. (Photo by Austin Explorer)

The largest marker in the cemetery belongs to Mary Johns. Despite being in the gated section, it too is in pieces. (Photo by Austin Explorer)

Many of the graves bear no legible marker, instead they are marked by a pile of rocks or depressions in the ground. (Photo by Austin Explorer)

Log Entries

Sign is now missing - still hard to find
By Austin Explorer on 1/10/2010
Rating:

I stopped by to make my visit official. Photos are from an earlier visit. The "Jolly Cemetary" sign is now gone. Not sure when it disappeared.

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