New Trinity Cemetery
Haltom City, Tarrant County, Texas
Marker Inscription
When the Rev. Greene Fretwell, a former slave, died in 1886, there was no black cemetery in this part of Tarrant County. With donations collected by his widow, Frances, the trustees of Trinity Chapel Methodist Church bought two acres in 1889 for a church and burial ground. Worship services were held under a brush arbor until a frame church was built here. By the 1920s, burials began on adjacent land, known as New Trinity Cemetery. Additional property was designated in 1931 as People's Burial Park. Today the three sites are commonly called New Trinity Cemetery. (1985) Historic Texas Cemetery medallion attached to post.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When the Rev. Greene Fretwell, a former slave, died in 1886 there was no Black cemetery in this corner of Tarrant County. His widow Frances gathered donations, and in 1889 the trustees of Trinity Chapel Methodist Church bought two acres for a church and burial ground, worshipping under a brush arbor until a frame church could be raised. Over the following decades the grounds expanded into what is now collectively called New Trinity Cemetery.
Why it matters
Founded by and for a freed community, the cemetery is a lasting record of African American self-determination in the decades after emancipation.
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Related people
- · Rev. Greene Fretwell
- · Frances Fretwell
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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