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.
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Related people
- · Miguel Muldoon
- · Simon Peter Ford
- · James Chambers Coulson
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Muldoon Community
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First settled in the 1830s on land from an 1831 Spanish grant through Stephen F. Austin, the Muldoon community took its name from Father Miguel Muldoon, an Irish-born, Spanish-educated priest who ministered to Austin's colonists and received leagues of land in return. The town boomed after the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad arrived in 1887, gaining stores, churches, a hotel, a cotton gin, and its distinctive 1890 precinct courthouse. Muldoon blue sandstone from the local quarry went into courthouses, churches, and even Galveston's coastal jetties before the community faded with the railroad's decline.
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