Melissa Cemetery
Melissa, Collin County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This cemetery has been the primary burial ground for members of the Melissa Community for generations. Its origin can be traced to the pioneer Sherley/Shirley family, although the specific date of its founding is unknown. The oldest graves in the cemetery are those of William M. Sherley (1856), Lewis Sherley (1867), and Albert Shirley (1879). They may have originally been buried in a family cemetery on the nearby farm of Lewis Sherley and relocated to this site when the Melissa Cemetery was formally established in 1889. Also buried in the Sherley Family Cemetery were a number of family slaves, and that site became the nearby St. Paul Cemetery. A number of Melissa residents were interred here prior to the official designation of the cemetery as a public burial ground in 1889. According to local tradition a railroad worker who died in 1872 is buried here in an unmarked grave. Many pioneer residents of Melissa are interred in this cemetery, including confederate Captain Thomas M. Scott and veterans of the Mexican War, Civil War, World War I, and World War II. The Melissa Cemetery Association cares for the historic graveyard. (1989)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This cemetery has served the Melissa community for generations, tracing its roots to the pioneer Sherley family whose oldest graves date to the 1850s. Formally established in 1889, it gathers early settlers—including a Confederate captain and veterans of conflicts from the Mexican War through World War II—into a single burial ground. A related family plot that once held enslaved people became the nearby St. Paul Cemetery, a reminder of the community's divided past.
Why it matters
The cemetery and its segregated companion ground preserve both the pioneer heritage of Collin County and the hard realities of slavery and separation woven through it.
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Related people
- · Thomas M. Scott
- · William M. Sherley
- · Lewis Sherley
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Scott-Barker House
Melissa, TX
This L-plan Victorian dwelling went up around the 1870s, as the young town of Melissa was taking root in the Blackland Prairie of North Texas. Merchant Louis A. Scott and his wife Louise bought it in 1880, and after 1903 it passed to the Barker family, whose daughters lived here for 85 years. When a devastating tornado tore through Melissa in 1921, the sturdy house lost only a chimney—a small testament to its solid construction and its distinctive dormers and Mansard-type roofs.
Melissa Christian Church
Melissa, TX
This North Texas congregation grew out of religious gatherings held in a local schoolhouse as early as 1868, raising its first sanctuary near this spot in 1878. After a 1921 tornado leveled that building, local contractor W. N. Osburn led church volunteers in erecting the present structure in 1924, giving it modest classical touches like entrance pediments and a dentil cornice. Many worshippers today descend from the church's charter members.
First Baptist Church of Melissa
Melissa, TX
This Collin County congregation was organized in October 1884 as the Melissa Baptist Church of Christ, beginning with twenty-two charter members under first pastor Levi Dunn. For years it met only monthly, moving to twice-monthly services in 1898 and weekly worship by 1948. A 1921 tornado leveled the original building, but the congregation rebuilt by 1924 and has anchored community life in Melissa ever since.
Dr. William Edward Throckmorton
Melissa, TX
Born in Virginia in 1795 and dead by 1843, Dr. William Edward Throckmorton left his name on a Texas county though his own life ran its course in the early Republic era. Physicians of his generation were among the essential figures on a thinning frontier, carrying medicine into places that had little else. The county named for him carries that legacy forward.