Emily Brown Cemetery
Mont Belvieu, Chambers County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1870, Elizabeth Barrow deeded a house and 198 acres of land to Thompson and Emily (Hulbert) Brown in exchange for their care of her in her old age. Both Thompson and Emily were born into slavery, and Emily served as midwife for many area families. The Browns gave land to the Old River Methodist Episcopal Church in 1881, and from that donation came this cemetery. Thompson (d. 1897) was first to be interred here; other burials include Emily, their son Hazard, and his descendants. The church changed its name to St. Emily in Emily’s honor, and it continues to maintain the site. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2005
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1870 Elizabeth Barrow deeded a house and 198 acres to Thompson and Emily Brown in return for her care in old age—an arrangement that gave the formerly enslaved couple land of their own just years after emancipation. Emily served as a midwife to families across the area, and in 1881 the Browns donated ground to the Old River Methodist Episcopal Church, from which this cemetery grew. The congregation later renamed itself St. Emily in her honor and still tends the graves of the Brown family.
Why it matters
This burial ground is a tangible record of Black landownership and community-building in the fragile years after slavery, centered on a woman whose midwifery knit a whole neighborhood together.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
The Emily Brown Cemetery is rooted in one of the most fragile and consequential moments in American history: the first years after emancipation. The Civil War had ended slavery, and across the South millions of formerly enslaved people faced the enormous question of what freedom would actually mean — whether it would bring land, security, and community, or only a new form of dependence.
For Black families in Texas and throughout the South, land was the truest measure of freedom. To own ground was to have a foothold that could not easily be taken away — a place to farm, to worship, and to bury one's dead. Yet in the years right after slavery, land ownership by Black families was rare and hard-won, hemmed in by poverty and by a society reluctant to let it happen.
Against that backdrop, the story that unfolds on this ground in Chambers County is remarkable. It begins in 1870, just five years after the war, with a formerly enslaved couple coming into possession of a substantial piece of land — and building on it a community that has endured for more than a century and a half.
People & events
The story turns on an unusual bargain. In 1870, a woman named Elizabeth Barrow deeded a house and 198 acres of land to Thompson and Emily Brown in exchange for their care of her in her old age. Both Thompson and Emily had been born into slavery; now, through this arrangement, they held land of their own — a striking reversal of fortune so soon after emancipation.
Emily, born Emily Hulbert, was more than a landowner. She served as a midwife for many families across the area, attending births and, in the most literal sense, helping to bring the next generation of the community into the world. In a rural place with few doctors, a trusted midwife was one of the most important people a neighborhood could have, and her work wove her into the lives of families all around her.
In 1881 the Browns gave land to the Old River Methodist Episcopal Church, and from that gift this cemetery grew. Thompson died in 1897 and was the first to be buried here; Emily followed, as did their son Hazard and his descendants. In time the congregation renamed itself St. Emily, in Emily's honor — and the church continues to maintain the site to this day.
Its place in the American story
This burial ground is a tangible record of Black landownership and community-building in the perilous decades after slavery — a chapter of American history that is too often invisible because it left so few monuments behind. Here, in ground and stone and a church that still bears Emily Brown's name, that chapter is preserved.
The pattern the Browns followed was one that Black communities repeated across the post-emancipation South: acquire land, donate a piece of it to found a church, and from the church draw a school, a cemetery, and a center of community life. These institutions were the bedrock of Black self-determination, built by people who had been denied every such foothold under slavery. That they endured is a testament to the determination of their founders.
And at the heart of this particular story stands a woman. It is rare enough for the historical record to preserve the name of a formerly enslaved person; rarer still for a whole congregation to rename itself after one. Emily Brown — landowner, midwife, matriarch — became the namesake of an institution that outlived her by generations. Her story is a reminder that the builders of American community were often women whose work knit whole neighborhoods together.
If you visit
Come to this place understanding what it represents: a foothold of freedom, won and held by people who began their lives in slavery. That knowledge changes how every stone reads. Look for Thompson Brown's grave, the first interment here in 1897, and for Emily's nearby — the couple whose 1870 bargain for land set everything in motion. Around them lie their son Hazard and his descendants, generations of one family gathered on ground that family made its own.
Notice the church's name, St. Emily, and let it register fully. A congregation renamed itself for a formerly enslaved midwife — a rare and moving act of honor that tells you how deeply Emily Brown was woven into this community. The church still tends the cemetery, so you are visiting a place that remains loved and cared for, not abandoned.
This is a quiet spot in Chambers County, and its power lies in its story rather than in any grand feature. Walk gently and read the family names as a record of endurance. If your travels take you looking for the deeper layers of American history — the ones that don't announce themselves on the highway — a stop here is time well spent.
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
- · Emily Brown
- · Thompson Brown
- · Elizabeth Barrow
Themes & tags
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