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.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the 1840s the Republic of Texas needed people. To fill its northern frontier, it granted a huge tract of North Texas land to the Peters Colony, an immigration venture that recruited settlers from the eastern United States. Families who met the terms received certificates they could later use to claim land. Much of the region around present-day Dallas and Grayson County was settled this way.
By the 1850s, after Texas joined the Union, those settlers were turning prairie and woodland into farms. Communities in this part of Grayson County were young and small. A family burial plot was often one of the first permanent marks a settlement left on the land.
The decades that followed brought the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the arrival of railroads, which tied North Texas more closely to national markets. The people buried here lived through all of it. Their graves span the region's shift from frontier to settled farm country.
People & events
The land was patented by Anderson White, who lived from 1801 to 1885, on a Peters Colony certificate issued April 23, 1850. The cemetery began in sorrow. On January 6, 1857, White's daughter, Sarah White Haning, wife of Aaron Haning, was buried here. Just one week later, on January 13, a second grave was added for Aaron's mother, Rachel Pierce Haning. Two losses in a single week began this burial ground.
In June 1857 White sold his land in the area, but he held back two acres around the graves. In April 1859 he deeded that ground to trustees for a public cemetery, an act of foresight that kept his daughter's resting place from becoming private farmland. The property then passed to Benjamin F. Hall, who owned it from 1857 to 1872. Hall, who lived from 1803 to 1873, was a pioneer minister of the Disciples of Christ, and also a doctor, dentist, and lawyer. He founded several churches in the region, and the cemetery bears his name.
Over the years the graves came to include the first settlers of this part of Grayson County, a number of Confederate veterans, and several rural victims of the great Sherman tornado of May 15, 1896. That storm was one of the deadliest in Texas history, and its toll reached beyond the city into the surrounding countryside. Later land donations expanded the grounds, carrying the cemetery's story into the following century.
Its place in the American story
Hall Cemetery shows how public land policy shaped American settlement. The Peters Colony was one of several schemes that used land grants to attract settlers, and it helped establish the population of North Texas. The families who came here from the eastern states were part of the great westward movement of the mid-1800s.
Benjamin F. Hall's many roles say something about frontier life. In a young community, one educated person might preach on Sunday, treat the sick, pull teeth, and draw up legal papers. The Disciples of Christ, the movement Hall served, grew quickly on the American frontier, and preachers like him carried it into new territory.
The cemetery also holds the marks of the nation's larger upheavals. Confederate veterans rest here, linking this quiet ground to the Civil War. The victims of the 1896 tornado recall how vulnerable prairie communities were to severe weather, a danger that still defines life in the region called Tornado Alley.
If you visit
Rural cemeteries like this one reward a slow walk. Look for the oldest stones, which may be weathered and hard to read, and think about the January week in 1857 when the first two graves were dug. Look, too, for dates clustered around May 1896, which may mark lives lost in the Sherman tornado.
Please be respectful: this is an active burial ground and a place of mourning for local families. Stay on paths where you can, don't make rubbings on fragile stones, and leave everything as you found it. Early morning or late afternoon light often makes old inscriptions easier to read.
Howe sits along the corridor between Sherman and the Dallas area, so Hall Cemetery makes a thoughtful stop on a North Texas drive. Pair it with a visit to Sherman to learn more about the 1896 storm, and with other Peters Colony sites that recall how this region was first settled.
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
- · 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
Howe, TX
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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David Elliott, born in Tennessee in 1817, went to sea young on the Mississippi and rose to riverboat captain before his ordination as a Baptist minister. In 1847 he settled in southern Grayson County, where he found unmarked pioneer graves in sandstone foreign to the area; when his daughter Virginia died in 1855 he buried her nearby, and the plot grew into a public cemetery. Maintained for decades by Pilgrim's Rest Baptist Church, which Elliott helped organize, it holds early teachers, longtime residents, and military veterans.