Lafayette Cemetery
Gilmer, Upshur County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Lafayette community, named by early settler Matthew F. Locke for his son, Lafayette Locke, developed in this area in the 1850s. Locke deeded three acres of land to the Philadelphia Baptist Church for a cemetery in 1858. The land, which already contained two family burials, became known as Lafayette Cemetery. The oldest documented grave is that of T. E. Montgomery, Locke's brother-in-law, who died in 1855. Although the community began to decline in the 1920s, this and other nearby graveyards serve as visible reminders of the area's pioneer heritage.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The Lafayette community grew here in the 1850s, named by early settler Matthew F. Locke for his son Lafayette. In 1858 Locke deeded three acres to the Philadelphia Baptist Church for a burial ground that already held two family graves; the oldest documented is that of his brother-in-law T. E. Montgomery, who died in 1855. Though the community faded in the 1920s, the cemetery endures as a marker of the area's pioneer beginnings.
Why it matters
Pioneer cemeteries are often the last visible trace of vanished frontier communities, quietly preserving the names of the families who first broke the East Texas land.
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Related people
- · Matthew F. Locke
- · Lafayette Locke
- · T. E. Montgomery
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Pleasant Grove Cemetery
Bettie, TX
In the 1850s, families from the Deep South pushed into the piney woods of East Texas and founded the Lafayette community, burying their dead in what became Pleasant Grove Cemetery — the first grave, in 1860, that of a one-year-old child of Georgia immigrants. Land was formally set aside for church and cemetery use in 1870, and in a distinctly local touch, iron ore mined commercially nearby in the 1890s was used to mark the graves of the area's earliest settlers.
Holly Springs Baptist Church
Pittsburg, TX
Holly Springs Baptist Church was formed in 1903 when two older congregations founded by post–Civil War settlers merged under the Rev. B. H. Sims. On land donated by Harriet Coffman, the congregation raised its first sanctuary and joined the Liberty Baptist Association, replacing it with a new building in 1928 that twice hosted the association's annual meeting. Long known as a training ground for young ministers, it has served the Camp County community for over a century.
Riley Cemetery
Pittsburg, TX
The oldest marked grave in this Camp County cemetery dates to 1859, and the surrounding land was acquired by John Riley, Sr., in 1875, giving the burial ground its name. Among those laid to rest here are the Riley family, a Confederate captain who had served in the Georgia legislature, and the family whose name marks the county's highest point. Descendants of these pioneers still live nearby and tend the historic graveyard.
Ebenezer Cemetery
Pittsburg, TX
Ebenezer Cemetery marks a small farming community founded in the 1850s by families who came west from Georgia to the pine country of what became Camp County. Israel Rape deeded the land in 1857, though the oldest marked grave belongs to an infant who died in 1870, a reminder of how fragile life on the antebellum frontier could be. A cemetery association organized in 1971 still keeps the two-acre ground active today.