Berryman Cemetery
Alto, Cherokee County, Texas
Marker Inscription
James Dill, an early Anglo settler who would become the first alcalde at Nacogdoches under Mexican rule, petitioned the Spanish government in 1802 for land that included this site. He married Helena Kimble, who later divided the property among their children after his death. The tract conveyed to daughter Helena (Dill) Berryman and her husband Capt. Henry Berryman included this site. Born in Virginia, Capt. Berryman graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and was stationed in Louisiana, where he met Helena, who was attending school at Natchitoches. The two married and lived in Louisiana, later returning to Teas and building a log home called Forest Hill. Capt. Berryman encouraged farmers to settle this area. Following his death in 1859, Helena remained at Forest Hill, raising thirty orphans in addition to her three children and becoming an early contributor to the Buckner Baptist Children's Home. She passed away in 1888. Other buried here include former slaves "Aunt" Sally and "Uncle" Alex Berryman; Civil Water veteran, Alto civic leader and Cherokee County Commissioner Henry Water Berryman; and former Cleveland Indians baseball player, Carl Yowell. The earliest marked grave is that of Catherine Josephine Berryman, daughter of Helena and Henry, who died in 1849. Descendants formed the Berryman Cemetery Association to care for the burial ground. Today, the burial ground is a reminder of a pioneering Texas family vital to the development of Alto and Cherokee County. Historic Texas Cemetery – 2006
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The land around Berryman Cemetery traces back to a 1802 Spanish grant sought by James Dill, who would become the first alcalde of Nacogdoches under Mexican rule. His daughter Helena and her husband, West Point graduate Capt. Henry Berryman, built the plantation home 'Forest Hill' and encouraged farmers to settle the area; after Henry's death in 1859, Helena stayed on and raised thirty orphans alongside her own children. The burial ground that grew here holds the family, former slaves Sally and Alex Berryman, a Civil War veteran and county commissioner, and even a former Cleveland Indians ballplayer.
Why it matters
Spanning Spanish, Mexican, and Republic-era Texas, the Berryman story compresses the region's tangled path to statehood — land grants, frontier settlement, slavery, and civic building — into a single family plot.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
The land around Berryman Cemetery has changed flags more than once, and its story begins under a banner most Texans forget: the Spanish crown. In 1802, an early Anglo settler named James Dill petitioned the Spanish government for a grant that included this site — a reminder that long before the Alamo or the Republic, this corner of East Texas was Spanish territory, and then, after 1821, Mexican.
This is the deep frontier of Texas history, the layered era when Spanish, Mexican, and Anglo-American worlds overlapped around Nacogdoches and Cherokee County. Grants were petitioned, settlements founded, and families like the Dills and Berrymans planted themselves on land that would pass through three sovereignties before it ever became part of a state.
Over the century that followed, the ground here would witness the whole arc of the region's development — from Spanish grant to plantation, through the Civil War, and into the settled civic life of Alto and Cherokee County. A single family cemetery ended up holding all of it.
People & events
James Dill was no minor figure: he would become the first alcalde — the chief local magistrate — at Nacogdoches under Mexican rule. He married Helena Kimble, and after his death she divided the property among their children. The tract that included this site passed to their daughter Helena and her husband, Captain Henry Berryman, and it is their story that gives the cemetery its name and its heart.
Henry Berryman was Virginia-born and West Point-trained, an Army officer stationed in Louisiana. There he met Helena, who was away at school in Natchitoches; they married, lived a while in Louisiana, then returned to Texas and built a log home they called Forest Hill. The captain worked to draw farmers to settle the area — the quiet, essential labor of frontier community-building. After his death in 1859, Helena stayed on at Forest Hill and did something extraordinary: alongside her own three children she raised thirty orphans, and became an early supporter of the Buckner Baptist Children's Home. She died in 1888.
The cemetery gathers a whole cross-section of that world. The earliest marked grave, from 1849, is the Berrymans' daughter Catherine Josephine. Buried here too are former slaves known as "Aunt" Sally and "Uncle" Alex Berryman; a Civil War veteran, Alto civic leader, and Cherokee County Commissioner, Henry Walter Berryman; and, remarkably, former Cleveland Indians baseball player Carl Yowell. Descendants later formed the Berryman Cemetery Association to care for the ground.
Its place in the American story
Few places compress the tangled path to Texas statehood as tightly as this family plot. In the span of a few generations and a single bloodline, you can trace the region's passage through Spanish, Mexican, and Republic-era Texas — a 1802 land grant, an alcalde serving under Mexico, a West Point officer coaxing American farmers onto the frontier.
The cemetery also refuses to flatten that history into a single triumphant story. The graves of "Aunt" Sally and "Uncle" Alex Berryman, buried on the same ground as the family that had enslaved them, are a stark and honest reminder that slavery was woven into the region's settlement — and that the historical record here holds hard truths alongside proud ones.
And then the story keeps going, right into recognizable modern America: a Civil War veteran who became a county commissioner, a woman who turned private grief into a life of raising orphans and supporting a children's home, even a big-league ballplayer. In one burial ground you can watch a raw Spanish-grant frontier mature into the civic life of an American county.
If you visit
Berryman Cemetery, designated a Historic Texas Cemetery, is the kind of place that rewards slow, respectful attention. Walk the rows and read the stones as a timeline: the earliest marked grave dates to 1849, and from there the burials fan out across more than a century of the region's history. Each name is a doorway into a different chapter.
Look for the range of lives gathered here — the pioneering family from Forest Hill, the formerly enslaved Sally and Alex, a Civil War veteran turned county commissioner, a former Cleveland Indians player. Standing among them, you feel how a single quiet plot can hold Spanish grants, plantation days, war, and civic building all at once. Treat the ground gently; descendants formed an association to care for it, and it remains a place of family memory.
The cemetery sits near Alto in Cherokee County, deep in the historic country around old Nacogdoches, and makes a thoughtful stop on an East Texas heritage drive. Come knowing that the story here is layered and not always comfortable — and that its honesty is exactly what makes it worth the visit.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · James Dill
- · Henry Berryman
- · Helena Dill Berryman
Themes & tags
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