Old Celina Cemetery
Celina, Collin County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The town of Celina, settled by natives of Celina, Tennessee, was founded near this site in 1870. The oldest grave here is that of a child who died in 1884. W.J. Bounds (1830-1886) donated the land as a community cemetery after the death of Elizabeth McWhorter on Feb. 298, 1885. In 1900 residents of Celina began to relocate their homes and businesses along the railroad (2.5 mi. ne). By 1910 only this burial ground remained at the original townsite. A cemetery association was formed in 1918. Several more acres were later added to the cemetery, which contains about 600 graves. ** (1976)***
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Founded near this spot in 1870 by settlers from Celina, Tennessee, the town of Celina left this cemetery behind when the community picked up and moved to the railroad around 1900. W. J. Bounds donated the land as a community burying ground after Elizabeth McWhorter's death in 1885, and its oldest grave holds a child who died in 1884. A cemetery association formed in 1918, and the grounds now hold some 600 graves.
Why it matters
When Celina relocated to the tracks, its abandoned townsite cemetery became the last marker of the original settlement—a common fate for railroad-bypassed Texas towns.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · W. J. Bounds
- · Elizabeth McWhorter
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Crossroads Cemetery
Celina, TX
East of Celina, a Baptist congregation gathered in 1882 on a acre-and-a-half tract that brothers Abiel and Edmond Stelzer had held in common, and the burial ground beside it already held graves reaching back to 1875. When the railroad arrived, the congregation followed it into the new town and became First Baptist Church of Celina, but the cemetery stayed put and remains in use today. Its official 2006 designation preserves one of the quiet fixtures of Collin County's farming country.
T. J. Campbell House
Frisco, TX
T. J. Campbell built this cypress-sided home in 1869 in Lebanon, Texas, right on the old Preston Road as longhorn herds streamed north. When the railroad and mail line bypassed Lebanon, the Campbells simply moved the house to Frisco in 1902, dressing it up with gingerbread trim. For decades the pioneer merchant family served this corner of Collin County.
City of Pilot Point
Pilot Point, TX
In the late 1840s, pioneers drawn by rich soil, water, and game settled at the edge of Texas's Cross Timbers, near a high stand of timber that guided travelers and gave the town its name. Platted in 1854 and served by an early immigrant trail and the Butterfield stage route, Pilot Point grew into a market hub for farmers and stock raisers, gaining a seminary, newspaper, bank, grist mill, and cotton gin. The arrival of two railroads in the 1880s cemented its place as a regional trade center.
Frisco Methodist Church
Frisco, TX
Frontier settlers and a Methodist circuit-riding minister organized this congregation in a log home in 1848, naming it Bethel Methodist Church and raising a first sanctuary on donated land in 1852. Its camp meetings grew so large that a shed was built to shelter them in 1888, and in 1902 the church followed the new railroad into the town of Frisco, renaming itself as it went.