Pitman Cemetery
Muldoon, Fayette County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Located in southwestern Fayette County, the Muldoon area was first settled in the 1830s when Father Miguel Muldoon acquired a Spanish land grant from Stephen F. Austin. The area continued to grow and attract settlers throughout the 19th century. In 1871, Jesse Sullivan, J.R. Allen, Duncan Carmichael and J.T. Burleson, trustees for the Methodist Episcopal Church, purchased six acres of land from John Sauer for a church and burial ground. The first burial in the cemetery was for Dr. John B. Floyd (1842-1875), a doctor originally from St. Martins, New Brunswick. The second burial is that of James Carrel Bell (1820-1880), a Texas Revolutionary War Veteran. Battle of San Jacinto veteran Simon Peter Ford (1816-1898) is also buried here. Duncan Carmichael (1827-1886), a Civil War veteran, is also buried here aside many other veterans from the Civil War onward who served their country. Other burials include pioneer families, pastors, educators and business leaders. One burial of note is that of James Chambers Coulson (1857-1909), an English immigrant who became an expert stonemason and managed the Muldoon Rock Quarries that supplied the “Muldoon Blue” sandstone for many local landmarks, the Galveston Seawall and jetties, and buildings across Texas. In the center of the cemetery is the old Union Hill Baptist Church, moved to the cemetery in the 1940s and now used for funerals and meetings. A cemetery association was established in the 1940s to care for the cemetery, a tangible reminder and connection to the area’s rich history. HISTORIC TEXAS CEMETERY – 2016
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The Muldoon area traces its name to Father Miguel Muldoon, who held a Spanish land grant here in the 1830s, and settlers steadily filled the county through the century. In 1871 Methodist trustees bought land for a church and burial ground, and the graves that followed hold a cross-section of frontier Texas—San Jacinto veteran Simon Peter Ford, Civil War soldiers, pioneer families, and James Chambers Coulson, the English stonemason whose "Muldoon Blue" sandstone went into the Galveston Seawall and buildings across the state. An old Baptist church moved to the grounds in the 1940s still serves for funerals and meetings.
Why it matters
Pitman Cemetery gathers in one place the layered history of southwestern Fayette County—Spanish land grants, republic-era veterans, and the immigrant craftsmen whose local quarries built landmarks far beyond Texas.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Southwestern Fayette County was frontier ground in the 1830s, part of the great wave of settlement that filled Texas in its Mexican and early republic years. The land around what became Muldoon was first opened when Father Miguel Muldoon acquired a Spanish land grant tied to Stephen F. Austin's colonizing efforts — the same colonization that drew thousands of Anglo and European families into the region. The town would eventually carry Muldoon's name.
Settlers kept coming through the middle of the century, farming, raising families, and building the institutions a community needs. Chief among those, in that era, was a church with a burial ground. In 1871 trustees for the Methodist Episcopal Church bought six acres for exactly that purpose, and a cemetery took root that would gather generations.
The timing matters. A cemetery begun in 1871 would receive people whose lives spanned the whole arc of nineteenth-century Texas — those born under Mexican rule, veterans of the revolution that made Texas independent, soldiers of the Civil War, and the immigrant tradesmen who arrived as the region industrialized.
People & events
The graves at Pitman Cemetery read like a roll call of frontier Texas. The first burial, in 1875, was Dr. John B. Floyd, a physician who had come all the way from St. Martins, New Brunswick — a reminder of how far people traveled to build a life on this land. The second, in 1880, was James Carrel Bell, a veteran of the Texas Revolution.
Rest here too is Simon Peter Ford, who lived from 1816 to 1898 and fought at the Battle of San Jacinto — the decisive fight that won Texas its independence. To stand near his grave is to stand near living memory of the republic's founding. Nearby lies Duncan Carmichael, a Civil War veteran who had also been one of the church trustees, and he is far from alone: the cemetery holds many who served their country from the Civil War onward, alongside pioneer families, pastors, educators, and business leaders.
One name stands out for what it built. James Chambers Coulson, an English immigrant who lived from 1857 to 1909, became an expert stonemason and managed the Muldoon rock quarries. His "Muldoon Blue" sandstone went into local landmarks, into buildings across Texas — and into the Galveston Seawall and its jetties. In the center of it all sits the old Union Hill Baptist Church, moved onto the grounds in the 1940s and still used for funerals and gatherings.
Its place in the American story
Small country cemeteries like this one are among the truest archives America has. In a single fenced field, Pitman Cemetery holds the layers of the national story: a Spanish colonial land grant, veterans of a revolution and a civil war, immigrant professionals and craftsmen, and the ordinary farm families who did the daily work of settlement.
Simon Peter Ford's presence links this quiet ground to one of the pivotal moments in the nation's westward expansion — San Jacinto, the battle that brought Texas into being as a republic and, eventually, into the Union. The Civil War veterans buried beside him carry the story forward into the nation's greatest internal reckoning.
And Coulson's story shows how the local becomes national. Stone quarried and cut by an English immigrant in rural Fayette County ended up armoring Galveston against the sea. The Galveston Seawall was one of the great engineering responses to disaster in American history, and a piece of it came from these hills — proof that the labor of an out-of-the-way place can shape landmarks far beyond it.
If you visit
Give yourself time to walk the rows slowly, because this cemetery rewards close reading. Look for the oldest stones and the dates that reach back into the frontier era, and seek out the graves of the veterans — the San Jacinto and Civil War soldiers whose lives bracket some of the most consequential years in the nation's history.
Notice the stone itself. In a place tied to the Muldoon quarries, the very markers and local landmarks are part of the story; that distinctive "Muldoon Blue" sandstone connects this ground to buildings and seawalls elsewhere in Texas. At the center stands the old Union Hill Baptist Church, relocated here in the 1940s and still in use — a rare living building at the heart of a burial ground.
It is a peaceful, well-tended place, cared for by a cemetery association formed in the 1940s, and it makes a quietly rich stop on a drive through southwestern Fayette County. Treat it as the memorial it is, and you will leave with a vivid sense of how many different Texases are gathered in one small field.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Miguel Muldoon
- · Simon Peter Ford
- · James Chambers Coulson
Themes & tags
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