Festooned with nearly a dozen Texas State Historical Markers describing the exploits of its permanent inhabitants, Old Bayview Cemetery was founded in 1845 as the United States pushed westward, and the Mexican-American War loomed over the annexation of Texas.
General Zachary Taylor, who would later become the 12thPresident of the United States, was tasked with securing Texas after annexation. Before that however, Taylor’s Army was building up its forces and ferrying them through the shallows of Corpus Christi Bay. On September 13th, 1845, the steamship Dayton suffered a boiler explosion that killed seven men. Corpus Christi founder and major real estate holder Henry Lawrence Kinney donated the three-and-a-half-acre hill that would become Old Bayview Cemetery, and the soldiers were buried the following day. The cemetery continued to grow into the city cemetery, and plots were not sold. It is notable that unlike most cemeteries of the time, there was no racial segregation at Old Bayview. All were equal in death on this small Corpus Christi hill that is suspected to hold many unmarked graves.
The location is particularly interesting as it is just south of the Nueces River, the river that, according to Mexico, marked the boundary line of Texas rather than the further south Rio Grande that was recognized by Texas and the United States. By putting the cemetery in this disputed territory, Taylor communicated a firm message that this real estate was Texas, and Texas was now (almost) part of the United States. Texas would be annexed that December, and the American victory in 1848 would finally achieve the “Manifest Destiny” of expanding the United States territory from sea to shining sea with Mexico surrendering all or parts of Texas, California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Wyoming to the United States.
Old Bayview is now in downtown Corpus Christi and the area has been heavily developed since 1845, but its slight elevation still gives views. Eli T. Merriman, local booster and former owner of the Corpus Christi Caller-Times campaigned relentlessly for the restoration of the cemetery for years and launched the first Bayview Cemetery Association. It is now his final resting place. In 2020 Old Bayview Cemetery was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
