Magnolia Creek Cemetery
League City, Galveston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Named after the watercourse that forms one of its boundaries, this cemetery traces its establishment to the settlement of Willis and Hepsibah Perkins Butler and her mother, Martha Morgan Perkins; Samuel J. and Rebecca and Coward Perkins; Allen and Margaret Perkins Coward; and Needham and Elizabeth Perkins Coward in this area in 1855. The descendants of these four families account for most of the people buried here and include four veterans of the Civil War. The first recorded burial was that of Samuel J. Perkins in 1859. The first legal record of the cemetery appears in a deed executed in 1884 by Rebecca Ann Coward Perkins to M. R. Hays. Provisions within this deed reserved 4 acres here for graveyard purposes. During the 1870s and 1880s George Washington Butler arranged to have several family members interred in the cemetery grounds. Butler's prominence in the community and burial here in 1921 is believed to have eld many local citizens to refer to this graveyard as the Butler Cemetery. An agreement was reached by the Magnolia Creek Cemetery Association and developers of the land adjacent to this graveyard site in 1982 guaranteeing its preservation for future generations.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This cemetery traces its beginnings to the 1855 arrival of the intermarried Perkins, Butler, and Coward families, whose descendants make up most of those buried here, including four Civil War veterans. The first recorded burial came in 1859, and a deed in 1884 formally set aside four acres for graveyard purposes. Long called Butler Cemetery for a prominent local family, it was preserved by agreement with developers in 1982.
Why it matters
Family burial grounds like this document the pioneer households whose kinship networks knit together the earliest American settlements in a region.
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Related people
- · Samuel J. Perkins
- · George Washington Butler
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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