Hall Cemetery
Howe, Grayson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Located on land patented by Anderson White (1801-85), on certificate issued April 23, 1850, by Peters colony, an immigration project which had received a large land grant in this region from the Republic of Texas. Burial plot was begun Jan. 6, 1857, upon the death of White's daughter, Sarah White Haning, wife of Aaron Haning. One week later, on Jan. 13, a second grave was added, that of Haning's mother, Rachel Pierce Haning. In June 1857, White sold his land in the area, but reserved 2 acres surrounding the burial site, deeded April 1859 to trustees for a public cemetery. Named for Benjamin F. Hall (1803-73), pioneer minister of the Disciples of Christ, doctor, dentist, and lawyer, who owned the White property from 1857 to 1872, and founded several churches in the region. Among those buried here are the first settlers of this part of Grayson County, who migrated to Texas from the eastern United States; a number of veterans of the army of the Confederate States of America; and several rural victims of the great Sherman tornado of May 15, 1896. Subsequent donations of land by J. D. Barnett and
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This burial ground sits on land patented under the Peters Colony, an immigration venture that received a huge Republic of Texas grant to draw settlers to North Texas. The cemetery began in January 1857 with the burial of Anderson White's daughter, and a week later her mother-in-law; White later reserved two acres and deeded them for a public cemetery. It takes its name from Benjamin F. Hall — minister, doctor, dentist, and lawyer — and holds the region's first settlers, Confederate veterans, and victims of the deadly 1896 Sherman tornado.
Why it matters
Hall Cemetery is a layered record of how a colonization scheme populated North Texas, and of the wars, disasters, and everyday deaths that marked the first American generation to live there.
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Related people
- · Anderson White
- · Benjamin F. Hall
- · Sarah White Haning
Related events
- · Sherman tornado of 1896
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
William Whitley Wheat
Howe, TX
William Whitley Wheat came to Texas from Alabama in 1842, joining the Peters Colony before settling in what became Grayson County, where he and his wife raised ten children. An early cattle drover who pushed herds to northern markets, he prospered as a farmer and served for years as county commissioner in the 1870s and 1880s. As the first president of the Old Settlers Association of North Texas, he worked to calm the frictions of the post-Civil War frontier.
Jabez and Harriet Haning
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Jabez Haning came to Grayson County with his family in 1846 and, in the following decade, claimed 320 acres through the Peters colony, marrying Harriet Campbell and building a farm. When the Houston & Texas Central Railway pushed a line through their land in the 1870s, the couple donated ground for a town site in 1876. The resulting settlement was named Howe, likely for a railroad official.
Whitaker Cemetery
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This Grayson County burial ground began in 1866 on J. W. Whitaker's farm with the interment of Joseph McLean, serving the Clayton schoolhouse community. Its settlers — farmers and ranchers who had come from Mississippi and other southern states — formally bought the cemetery in 1880 and kept burying their dead there. In 1967 their descendants founded an association that still tends the graves and holds a memorial service each May.
Elliott Cemetery
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