About
Gussettville was founded by Irish Catholic immigrants who were recruited to the area by empresarios John McMcullen and James McGloin. The settlement was situated on land originally granted to Patrick McGloin on December 3, 1831. Patrick died in 1844; his will left a portion of his land to his sister in Ireland, Mary McGloin Fox. She, her husband John Fox, and their eight adult children and their families all came to Texas to claim their inheritance between 1848 and 1854. Thus, the settlement was briefly known as Fox Nation before being renamed Gussettville in honor of Norwick Gussett, owner of the first general store and stagecoach remount station.
The Old Gussettville Cemetery is situated nearby on a tract of land that was briefly owned by Michael Fox, later purchased by Bridget McGloin in 1867, and is still owned by her descendants. Irish immigrant burials in this cemetery occurred from 1851 through 1871.
In that era, families were meeting for Mass in the home of Thomas and Anne Shannon. Thomas was a clerk in Gussett’s store and later opened his own store nearby. When the Shannon’s moved to Corpus Christi in 1869, they donated their home and two acres surrounding it to the Bishop of Galveston, thus creating what became known as the Gussettville cemetery.
The first recorded burial was on March 15, 1870 and the cemetery remains in use to this day. The cemetery was enlarged in 1905 and again in 1929 by donations from Bridget McGloin, who had acquired all of the land surrounding the cemetery. The present St. Joseph Church, situated on the cemetery grounds, was built in 1874.
The Gussettville Cemetery Association was founded in November of 1957 and has
maintained the cemetery for over 65 years through the stewardship of countless volunteers and donors, many of whom are fifth and sixth descendants of the original settlers.
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