3.

(continued from section 2...)
It was George W. Brackenridge who had the enormous monument and stone wall erected
around the cemetery grounds.  The monument is four feet square and ten feet high   (This is one
of the largest single blocks of granite that has ever been quarried in Texas.)  On the four sides of
the granite block, there is a brief history of each of the ten members of the Brackenridge Family.

When the monument was moved from the railroad station in Edna in 1916, it was a wet year
and the massive object had to be moved on the log rollers by oxen.  This journey required two weeks.

The four foot high stone fence that surrounds the cemetery is about 150 feet square, one and
one-half feet thick, and is gateless.  George stated, "If I had built a gate, someone would use it for
a cow pen, and I don't want cattle walking over the graves."  In addition, it was the family with that
no care whatsoever should be taken of the interior grounds.  The reason was twofold.   Not only
were they lovers of nature who disliked to see the normal course of growth disturbed, but they
understood the frailty of human will and how soon man forgets.  They wanted no one to feel that
the task of caring for the cemetery grounds rested on his shoulders.  In accordance with the family
wishes, the Lavaca-Navidad River Authority maintains only the exterior.

George Brackenridge gave to the less fortunate without publicity.  On November 27, 1886, he
was appointed as a member of the University of Texas Board of Regents, and during the
succeeding years he served longer on that board than any other individual.  His gifts to the
University were innumerable, but the larger ones were:  Brackenridge Hall at Austin; University
Hall at Galveston; a 500-acre tract of land west of Austin on the Colorado River; the Brackenridge
loan fund for women students of architecture, law, and medicine; and the Isabella H. Brackenridge
scholarship for women studies of medicine.