Corinth Cemetery
Stephenville, Erath County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1880, North Carolina native Dr. William Wallace McNeill and his wife, Elizabeth Ann (Bell), deeded land to the Methodist Episcopal Church, south, for a church, school and cemetery. The burial ground is the last remaining historic trace of the Corinth community. There are an unknown number of unmarked graves representing the cemetery’s earliest burials in the late 1800s. The oldest grave is of Confederate Soldier F.J. Simpson, who died in 1899. Artist Ethel Lewallen, who was twice appointed Texas State Artist of the Year, died in 1988 and is buried here. The Corinth Cemetery Association formed in 2003 to preserve and care for this sacred place.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1880, North Carolina native Dr. William Wallace McNeill and his wife Elizabeth Ann deeded land to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, for a church, school, and cemetery. The burial ground is the last surviving trace of the vanished Corinth community, with an unknown number of unmarked graves from the late 1800s. Its oldest marked grave is that of Confederate soldier F. J. Simpson, who died in 1899, and later burials include twice-honored Texas State Artist Ethel Lewallen.
Why it matters
The cemetery is the sole remaining evidence of a lost rural community and preserves the memory of the settlers, veterans, and artists who lived there.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · William Wallace McNeill
- · Elizabeth Ann Bell McNeill
- · Ethel Lewallen
- · F. J. Simpson
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Daniel Roberts and Mary Anna (Garland) Thornton
Stephenville vicinity, TX
Daniel Roberts Thornton, from Mississippi, married Mary Anna Garland—daughter of a frontier fighter—and the couple settled in Erath County in 1857 to raise cattle on a still-dangerous frontier. Mary Anna served as midwife and doctor to her neighbors while the family reared eight children; Thornton later fought for the Confederacy, served as county commissioner, and donated land for a school and the Hannibal Cemetery. Their lives trace the arc from open range to settled community.
Liberty Cemetery
Stephenville, TX
Marion D. and Harriet Pryor Kelley settled in the Liberty community in the mid-1880s and, in 1891, deeded land to Erath County for a cemetery and school. The oldest grave, dated 1890, is that of an infant son of the Handy family, and later burials include Civil War veterans John Bell Moring and A. Amariah Swanner and German immigrant Henry Hunt. The varied gravestones—granite, sandstone, marble, and limestone—bear emblems of the Masons, Order of the Eastern Star, and Woodmen of the World.
Fort Blair, C.S.A.
Desdemona, TX
A few miles southwest stood Fort Blair, the largest of the far-western "family forts" that sheltered settlers through the Civil War years when regular troops were away. Started by C.C. Blair in 1857, its dozen log cabins were linked by pickets, and its families made their own candles, soap, food, and clothing from whatever the land offered while defending against Indian raids. After the war the site became the town of Desdemona, which boomed when oil was struck in 1918.
Holt House
Bluff Dale, TX
Dr. Hardy L. Holt, a Confederate first lieutenant in the Civil War, later studied medicine and became a pioneer physician in Bluff Dale, where he opened the town's first drugstore—complete with an ice cream parlor. Around 1895 he and his wife, Belle, built this two-story Folk Victorian and Queen Anne home to replace an earlier house lost to fire. Its wrap-around porch and balcony, turned columns, and wrought-iron fence still mark it as a landmark of the town's early days.