Colmesneil-Mount Zion Cemetery
Colmesneil, Tyler County, Texas
Marker Inscription
According to local oral tradition, African American residents of Colmesneil began using this land for burial purposes as early as the 1850s. The property remained in the hands of absentee landlords until the 1930s, when the new owner allowed burials to continue at the site. The oldest legible tombstone in the graveyard is that of Henry Mitchell, who died September 11, 1859. There are a number of unmarked graves, however, and some possibly predate Mitchell's burial. Among the more than two hundred interments here are those of prominent members of Colmesneil's black community, including ministers, doctors, teachers, railroad employees, and veterans of World War I and World War II. Known as the Colmesneil Cemetery until 1972, the graveyard was renamed Mount Zion Cemetery to avoid confusion with another Colmesneil Cemetery in the city. The new name was taken from a combination of the names of two local churches with which the cemetery historically has been associated -Mount Hope Baptist Church and Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church. The cemetery serves as a visible reminder of the area's African American Heritage.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
By local tradition, African American residents of Colmesneil began burying their dead on this East Texas ground as early as the 1850s, with the oldest legible stone marking Henry Mitchell's 1859 death. For decades absentee landlords held the property before a 1930s owner secured its continued use. More than two hundred people rest here, among them ministers, doctors, teachers, railroad workers, and veterans of both World Wars, and in 1972 the ground was renamed Mount Zion after two associated Baptist churches.
Why it matters
The cemetery is a durable record of a Black community's leadership, faith, and service across a century when such histories were too often left unmarked.
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Related people
- · Henry Mitchell
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church
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Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church is one of the oldest African American congregations in this part of Tyler County. It grew out of a Freedmen's colony that formed in the early 1880s around jobs at a new sawmill, and was formally organized in 1881 by the Rev. George Durden as the first Black congregation in Colmesneil. For decades it served not only as a place of worship but as a school for Black children and a center of civic life, worshipping first in a log cabin the members built themselves.
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