HistoricSiteMarkers
Reconstruction & Gilded Age

Mt. View Cemetery

Coleman, Coleman County, Texas

Marker Inscription

This cemetery was established in 1891 on land donated by G. William Baker at the base of Robinson’s Peak in rural Coleman County. Families in the area built a new school called Mount View School. Upon the death of local residents, a cemetery was created near the schoolhouse. The oldest marked grave is that of Martha C. Baker, who died in 1891. Many of the families buried here were early pioneers and represent the history of the area. There are currently 312 identified graves at Mt. View, with 132 individuals born before 1900. In 2005, a cemetery association was created. In 2006, a pavilion was built near the entry gate, the land was legally designated as a cemetery and additional acreage was acquired.

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Established in 1891 on land donated at the base of Robinson's Peak, this rural Coleman County cemetery grew up alongside the Mount View School to serve the families who settled the area. The oldest marked grave dates to that first year, and more than a hundred of those buried here were born before 1900. A cemetery association formed in 2005 to protect and formally preserve the grounds.

Why it matters

Cemeteries like Mt. View preserve the names and life spans of the ordinary pioneer families whose labor turned open Texas rangeland into settled communities.

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Themes & tags

Westward ExpansionFrontier HistoryLandmark

Nearby & related markers

Silver Valley Cemetery

Silver Valley, TX

The first known grave here belongs to Helen A. Averitt, an early spiritual leader and educator buried in 1881, two decades before the land was formally designated a cemetery. Originally called Robinson's Peak Cemetery, it holds early settlers, veterans of every branch of the U.S. military, and the families of Mexican railroad workers who came to the region in the early 20th century. An association formed in 1958 keeps the still-active grounds.

White Chapel Cemetery

Coleman, TX

After Coleman County was organized in 1867, pioneer families pushed past the county seat to settle this grassy, game-filled locality and founded the village of White Chapel. When land was deeded for a school in 1884, a cemetery took root on the same ground, and school, church, and burial place all shared the community's name. Consolidation eventually drew the schoolchildren away, but the cemetery still records the families who first broke this land.

Coleman County

Coleman, TX

Coleman County occupies land where Apache, Comanche, and Kiowa people once camped and kept lookouts from its hills. White settlement began in 1857 around Camp Colorado, a U.S. 2nd Cavalry post on Jim Ned Creek; the county was created in 1858 and named for Robert M. Coleman, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence and San Jacinto veteran. In 1862 cattleman John Chisum arrived to raise beef for Confederate troops, and the county formally organized in 1864.

Colonel James E. McCord

Coleman, TX

James E. McCord came to Texas from South Carolina in 1853 and made his name surveying the raw frontier, including the ground around Camp Colorado. When the Civil War drained regular defenses, he took charge of the Texas Frontier Regiment, a hard-to-discipline band of frontiersmen, and in 1863 was unanimously elected its colonel. He scrapped the predictable patrol routes that raiders had learned to slip past, favoring surprise scouting expeditions, and his outfit was eventually absorbed into Confederate service as the 46th Texas Cavalry.