Nevill's Chapel Cemetery
Mount Pleasant, Titus County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Alexander B. Nevill family came from Tennessee to settle in Titus County in 1838, establishing their family burial ground on one acre west of their new home in the Alexander Nevill headright survey. The earliest burial on this site was that of Napoleon B. Nevill, who died in 1854 at age 20. Alexander Nevill (1804-1854) had the earliest birth date of those interred here. Another grave of interest is that of James C. "Sam" Rowland, a Nevill son-in-law, one of the few men officially hanged in Titus County. Mrs. Mary Nevill deeded the family plot to the deacons of the adjoining Missionary Baptist Church in 1906. In 1913 the first decoration day took place as families gathered to tend their plots and share a celebration of spring. The cemetery grew steadily throughout the 20th century. By 1997, a count revealed 1,113 graves. Of these, 1,071 had legible headstones; 42 had unidentifiable markers. Those interred here were primarily families of the Nevill's Chapel community. They include veterans of the American Armed Forces and of American and international conflicts. Now covering six acres and cared for by a cemetery association, the Nevill's Chapel Cemetery continues to serve the community, and such traditions as an annual dedication day continue to be observed. (1998)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The Nevill family came from Tennessee to Titus County in 1838, laying out a family burial ground on their headright survey, where the earliest grave dates to 1854. Among those resting here is James "Sam" Rowland, a Nevill son-in-law and one of the few men officially hanged in the county. Deeded to a Baptist church in 1906, the cemetery grew to more than 1,100 graves and became home to an annual decoration day begun in 1913.
Why it matters
From Republic-era pioneers to veterans of the nation's wars, Nevill's Chapel Cemetery preserves nearly two centuries of a Texas community's memory and the living traditions that honor it.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Alexander B. Nevill
- · Napoleon B. Nevill
- · James "Sam" Rowland
- · Mary Nevill
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Center Grove Cemetery
Cookville, TX
First known as the Yancey Cemetery, this burial ground began in the mid-1860s on land donated by David Yancey, Sr., whose party had traveled from Tennessee to Texas—an orphaned infant from that group being the first laid to rest here. Many of the earliest graves are marked only with rough fieldstones. Renamed Center Grove in 1900 for the nearby Church of Christ, it holds veterans of the Civil War and both World Wars.
Leesburg Cemetery
Leesburg, TX
Established around 1870 on land donated by Dwight Hays Townsend, this graveyard grew into the resting place of a whole rural East Texas community. Its earliest burials are believed to be two children reinterred from the old Leesburg schoolyard, and its oldest marked grave dates to 1870. Generations of pioneers, community leaders, and war veterans lie here, a stone record of the people who built and defended Leesburg.
Matinburg Cemetery
Pittsburg, TX
Local tradition holds that this cemetery began in 1871 when W. P. Jones buried his wife, Delila, here, meaning only to move her later to an established graveyard — but her grave stayed and became its first. In 1883 O. S. and Jane Bradfield deeded the land to the Fairview Baptist Church. Annual spring cleanups, a tradition since 1909, still draw the descendants of pioneers, lodge members, and veterans from the Civil War through Vietnam who rest here.
Iron Bluff Cemetery
Lone Star, TX
Livingston Skinner brought his family from Georgia to this corner of Texas in the early 1840s, and the burial ground began at the edge of their land with a daughter's grave in 1853. Over generations it filled with the Skinners and their neighbors from nearby Lone Star, and once shared its ground with the Iron Bluff Schoolhouse. Those buried here served in nearly every American conflict — Skinner himself a veteran of the War of 1812 and the Creek Wars, alongside later Confederate, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam veterans.