Head of Elm Cemetery
Saint Jo, Montague County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This cemetery is the oldest of three graveyards established in Saint Jo (formerly called Head of Elm). Local tradition claims that area settlers Enoch Willett, his daughter Mary, James Box, Aaron Anderson, and James Harris were killed in Indian raids nearby and buried here in the 1860s. The first recorded burial, however, is that of infant Charlie Wyatt in 1874. Accounts by early residents of this area indicate Head of Elm Cemetery was at one time much larger than the few remaining gravestones suggest. Buried on this hillside are early pioneers of the area and their descendants. (1994)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The oldest of three graveyards in Saint Jo—once called Head of Elm—this hillside holds the area's pioneers and their descendants. Local tradition remembers settlers like Enoch Willett and his daughter Mary among those killed in Indian raids and buried here in the 1860s, though the first documented burial is that of infant Charlie Wyatt in 1874. Early residents recalled a far larger cemetery than the scattered surviving stones suggest.
Why it matters
The burial ground preserves the memory of North Texas frontier settlement, when survival on the edge of the plains was measured in raids, hardship, and hard-won community.
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Related people
- · Enoch Willett
- · Charlie Wyatt
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
McGrady Cemetery
Saint Jo, TX
Allen R. McGrady and his wife Elizabeth Cox McGrady moved to this area along Clear Creek in 1859, settling on 160 acres. The cemetery began in the 1860s after a McGrady employee was killed by Indians and buried on the family farm, and an acre was set aside as a graveyard for family and neighbors. Allen and Elizabeth, who both died in September 1899, are buried here among the pioneers of Montague County.
Forestburg
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Forestburg took shape just after the Civil War, founded in memory of the pioneers who had pushed into this contested North Texas frontier. Its brief inscription honors settlers who battled Native peoples, endured hardship, and broke the soil so that a lasting community could follow. It marks the raw edge of settlement where survival itself was the founding achievement.
Perryman Cemetery
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The oldest marked grave in this Montague County burial ground belongs to an infant who died in 1862, and its early plots read like a chronicle of frontier hardship: a well-digger killed in an 1863 Indian raid, and two former Confederate soldiers who had been captured at Lookout Mountain. In 1883 Levi Perryman — himself a Confederate veteran, Indian fighter, and sheriff — bought the site and deeded it to the county. Still in use, the cemetery keeps the memory of the district's pioneers.
Red River Station
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