Greater Riverside Cemetery
Hearne, Robertson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This cemetery has served the African-American community in Hearne and the old town of Hearne since 1894. The area was originally settled by farmers, many of whom brought slaves with them when they immigrated to Texas. Hearne, named for Christopher Columbus Hearne, was platted in 1868 and developed as a crossroads for rail traffic.This burial ground was originally named the New Colored Cemetery, though it was known by a variety of names over the years; it was most commonly called St. Mark's Cemetery until 1933, when it became known as Riverside Cemetery. The original burial ground was made up of twenty acres purchased by the Colored Cemetery Association. The Primitive Baptist Church donated an acre to the burial ground when they relocated from here in 1906, and St. Manuel Baptist Church added an additional three acres in 1948.The first known interment here was of Chaney Delila Henderson in 1896. Since that time, hundreds of burials have occurred here. The grounds hold an especially large number of military veterans, including those who fought in conflicts dating to the Spanish-American War. Among the cemetery's features are markers for members of the Mosaic Templars of American, a black fraternal association with few known chapters in Texas. The Greater Riverside Association formed in 1982 and maintan the 24-acre cemetery; the association also renamed the burial ground. Today, Greater Riverside Cemetery continues to serve as a testament to the rich African-American legacy in the community of Hearne.Historic Texas Cemetery-2007
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When Hearne grew up as a rail crossroads on the Texas farmland where enslaved and later freed African Americans lived and labored, its Black community needed a burying ground of its own. Consecrated in 1894 as the New Colored Cemetery — later St. Mark's, then Riverside — it took its first known burial in 1896 and has since received hundreds, among them veterans reaching back to the Spanish-American War and members of the Mosaic Templars of America, a rare Texas chapter of that Black fraternal order. Church congregations and, from 1982, the Greater Riverside Association enlarged and tended the grounds to their present 24 acres.
Why it matters
Black cemeteries like this one are among the most enduring records of African American community, faith, and military service in the postwar South, holding names and lives that official histories too often left unwritten.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Greater Riverside Cemetery grew up alongside the town of Hearne, a place born of the railroad. Hearne was platted in 1868 and developed as a crossroads for rail traffic — the kind of junction where lines met, goods changed trains, and a town naturally took shape.
The surrounding land had been settled by farmers, and many of them had brought enslaved people with them when they came to Texas. Out of that painful history emerged a free Black community in and around Hearne, and by 1894 that community had done something enduring: it established a burial ground of its own.
This was the era of Reconstruction giving way to the Gilded Age and then the Progressive era — decades when African Americans in the South built churches, schools, associations, and cemeteries as the institutions of a self-governing community, often in the face of great obstacles. A cemetery was among the most sacred and lasting of these acts of self-determination.
People & events
The cemetery's names tell the town's story from both sides. Hearne itself was named for Christopher Columbus Hearne, and the burial ground carries the memory of the Black community that made its own life there. First called the New Colored Cemetery, it went by several names over the years — most often St. Mark's Cemetery, until it became Riverside Cemetery in 1933.
The first known interment, in 1896, was of Chaney Delila Henderson — a single name that opens a register of hundreds who would follow. The ground itself was a community effort: twenty acres purchased by the Colored Cemetery Association, an acre donated by the Primitive Baptist Church when it relocated in 1906, and three more added by St. Manuel Baptist Church in 1948.
The graves hold a striking number of military veterans, including men who served as far back as the Spanish-American War. And among the markers are those of members of the Mosaic Templars of America, a Black fraternal association with only a few known chapters in Texas — a rare and meaningful presence here. In 1982 the Greater Riverside Association formed to maintain the now 24-acre grounds and gave the cemetery its present name.
Its place in the American story
Black cemeteries are among the most important and most endangered records of African American life in the United States. In an era when official histories so often left Black names unwritten, these grounds preserved them — carving into stone the identities, families, and service of people the wider record ignored.
The veterans buried here connect a small Texas town to the nation's wars, from the Spanish-American War onward. Black Americans served in the country's conflicts even while denied full citizenship at home, and a cemetery like this one keeps that record of sacrifice visible.
The presence of the Mosaic Templars of America adds another national thread. Black fraternal orders provided insurance, burial benefits, and mutual aid at a time when such support was largely closed to African Americans elsewhere — a vital, self-built safety net. Finding their markers in Hearne, where chapters were few, links this community to a broad movement of Black self-help that spanned the South.
If you visit
Come to Greater Riverside Cemetery as you would to any place of memory — quietly, and with respect for the families who still tend it. This is an active, cared-for burial ground, maintained since 1982 by the Greater Riverside Association, and it has served its community continuously since 1894.
Walk with an eye for the layers of history in the stones. Look for the graves of military veterans — the Spanish-American War and later conflicts are represented here — and for any markers tied to the Mosaic Templars of America, a rare presence in Texas that speaks to a whole tradition of Black fraternal life.
As a Historic Texas Cemetery, it rewards a thoughtful visit on any tour of Hearne and Robertson County. Reading the names — beginning with Chaney Delila Henderson in 1896 — is itself an act of remembrance, honoring an African American legacy that the community has protected for well over a hundred years.
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
- · Christopher Columbus Hearne
- · Chaney Delila Henderson
Themes & tags
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