Alleyton Cemetery
Alleyton, Colorado County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Alleyton was settled by brothers Rawson, Abraham, John and Thomas Alley ca. 1822; William Alley joined his brothers in 1824. William donated a portion of his property in 1859 for right of way for the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railway, and the company also built a roundhouse and depot on the property. A town developed around the site and Alleyton became the largest town in Colorado County. The original map of the town, filed in the county records in 1860, show blocks 57 and 68 marked as the "graveyard." In 1875, the blocks were sold to H.C. Gaedke, after the death of William Alley and the foreclosure and reogranization of the railroad. After Gaedke's death in 1880, portions of blocks 57 and 68 (totalling approximately two acres) were deeded to three trustees for the official establishment of a cemetery at the site. That same year, 2.4 acres were sold to the trustees of the Alleyton Colored Cemetery to officially form a burial ground adjacent to the white cemetery for the burial of the African American citizens of Alleyton. The oldest marked burial at the site is that of T.S.M. Robinson, whose marker inscription reads "born in Arkansas, died in Texas, 1852, age 22 years." A yellow fever epidemic swept through Alleyton in 1867, and several burials were made at the cemetery at that time, including four members of the Captain Henry Clay Everett family. Additional burials at the site include veterans of the Civil War, Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, Korean War and Vietnam War. Today, Alleyton Cemetery remains an active burial ground while simultaneously reminding visitors of the pioneer settlers of this community. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2009
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Alleyton grew from the settlement of the Alley brothers around 1822 and became Colorado County's largest town after William Alley donated railroad right-of-way in 1859. Blocks marked as a graveyard on the 1860 town map were formally established as a cemetery by 1880, when an adjacent Colored Cemetery was also created for the community's African American residents. Burials here span a yellow fever epidemic of 1867 and veterans of wars from the Civil War through Vietnam.
Why it matters
The paired white and Colored cemeteries preserve in the ground the story of a Texas railroad town and the segregation that shaped even its burial places.
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Related people
- · William Alley
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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