Mount Zion Cemetery
Midlothian, Ellis County, Texas
Marker Inscription
An Indian who often rested on this hill was killed by his wild prairie horse in the 1850s and buried here. Sarah Witherspoon (1832-1857), an early Anglo-American settler, was interred nearby in the first marked grave. Soon after Coleman Jenkins died in 1861, his brother Alexander (1829-1895) deeded this public burial ground. In 1873, Jenkins helped found the Mount Zion Presbyterian Church here. A church house was erected and used for school. In the early 1900s, as the population shifted, the church and school closed. The cemetery is all that remains of this pioneer community. (1979)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This quiet hill in Ellis County holds the layered memory of a vanished pioneer community. Its earliest graves — an unnamed Native man killed by his horse in the 1850s and settler Sarah Witherspoon in 1857 — predate the burial ground Alexander Jenkins formally deeded after his brother's death in 1861. Jenkins went on to help found the Mount Zion Presbyterian Church here in 1873, whose building doubled as a school until shifting population closed both in the early 1900s.
Why it matters
When a frontier settlement fades, its cemetery often becomes the last witness to the families who once farmed, worshipped, and taught school there.
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Related people
- · Alexander Jenkins
- · Coleman Jenkins
- · Sarah Witherspoon
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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