Chireno Lower Cemetery
Chireno, Nacogdoches County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Situated near El Camino Real de Los Tejas, on land granted in 1792 to Jose Antonio Chireno, the Chireno Community developed in the 1830s when Chireno’s heirs sold tracts to incoming colonists, including Samuel Flournoy and Daniel H. Vail. In 1844, Vail donated around thirty acres to the trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Chireno for the community to use as a cemetery, church, and school, known as the Chireno School Campus. Out of the original thirty acres donated, a little over nine acres were designated for cemetery purposes. This land was divided into two segregated cemeteries, for anglo and african-american burials. After two structures burned at this location in 1890 and again in 1925, the church building was rebuilt to the northwest. The landscape of the cemetery is traditional with a variety of gravestones, including markers of granite, limestone, and marble surrounded by trees, grass, and irises. The earliest marked grave, that of the baby of M.W. And A.T. Burke, dates to 1861, although there may be earlier unmarked burials. Other noted burials include the reverend Richard A. Menefee (1809-1893) and Missouri M. Fowler Woolam (1807-1891), widow of Reverend Littleton Fowler and the first protestant woman missionary of Texas. Among many pioneer families buried here, the cemetery also serves as the final resting place for veterans of World War I, World War II, and the Korean War, as well as members of Woodmen of the World and Mason organizations. An oversight committee formed in 1978 to care for the cemetery, and in 2010, the Chireno Lower Cemetery, Inc. was formed to maintain this historic burial ground. Historic Texas Cemetery – 2009
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Rooted in a 1792 Spanish land grant along El Camino Real de los Tejas, the Chireno community took shape in the 1830s as incoming colonists bought tracts from the grantee's heirs. The cemetery donated in 1844 was divided into segregated Anglo and African American grounds and holds pioneer families, war veterans, and Missouri Fowler Woolam, remembered as the first Protestant woman missionary of Texas.
Why it matters
This burial ground records both the Spanish and Anglo-American layers of East Texas settlement and the hard reality of segregation that shaped even a community's final resting places.
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Related people
- · Jose Antonio Chireno
- · Daniel H. Vail
- · Missouri Fowler Woolam
- · Littleton Fowler
Themes & tags
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