Plano Mutual Cemetery
Plano, Collin County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Among the earliest graveyards in Collin county, this cemetery traces its beginnings to 1852 when Dr. Lillie was buried on land belonging to his uncle William Forman. A Kentucky native, Forman came to Texas about 1850 and bought 640 acres in 1851 from Sanford Beck. Lillie's death prompted a meeting of pioneer settlers to decide the location of a graveyard. The owners of four sections of land that converged together promised equal portions for the cemetery. However, most of the earliest graves are located on Forman land. By the 1870s the Forman Family Cemetery was combined with cemetery tracts purchased by the local Masonic and Odd Fellows' lodges. A group of local women organized the Ladies Mutual Cemetery Association in the 1890s to maintain the site. They beautified the grounds, provided a pavilion and doubled the size of the cemetery during their nearly 40 years tenure. By 1907 adjoining tracts of land were bought by the Mutual Cemetery Association, Woodmen of the World and Knights of Pythias organizations. The Plano Mutual Cemetery Association was formed in 1928 and continues service to the site. Buried here are many early pioneers and their descendants, war veterans, and elected officials. (1996)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Among the earliest graveyards in Collin County, this cemetery began in 1852 when Dr. Lillie was buried on land owned by his uncle William Forman, a Kentuckian who had bought 640 acres the year before. His death prompted settlers to organize a burial ground, and by the 1870s the Forman family plot merged with tracts owned by the Masonic and Odd Fellows lodges. A Ladies Mutual Cemetery Association formed in the 1890s beautified and doubled the grounds before today's association took over in 1928.
Why it matters
The cemetery's growth—from a family plot to lodge tracts to a women-led association—mirrors how pioneer North Texans built lasting community institutions together.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · William Forman
- · Dr. Lillie
- · Sanford Beck
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
First Baptist Church of Plano
Plano, TX
Established in 1852 as the Spring Creek Baptist Church on land owned by Jacob Routh, this congregation formally organized in 1853 and helped form the Elm Fork Baptist Association a year later. When the railroad reached Plano in 1872, the church took the town's name and built a new sanctuary here, becoming First Baptist around 1936 as the oldest Baptist congregation in Plano. Over the decades it helped plant several other area churches and sustained wide-ranging mission work.
Bowman Cemetery
Plano, TX
This medallion marks Bowman Cemetery, established in 1868 and later designated a Historic Texas Cemetery. Founded just after the Civil War, it served the farming families settling the Blackland Prairie of what is now the Plano area of Collin County.
Plano Cemetery
Plano, TX
This graveyard lies on a Peters Colony land grant held by Joseph Klepper, an Illinois immigrant who reached Collin County around 1845. It holds the graves of five Peters colonists and their families alongside other early settlers, and over time became the community's only burial ground for its Black residents. The cemetery has long been tied to the First Methodist Church, which once stood on adjacent land Klepper deeded.
First Methodist Church of Plano
Plano, TX
By oral tradition this congregation began about 1846–47, when thirteen Peters Colony settlers gathered in the home of Joseph and Elizabeth Russell to organize a Methodist church on the North Texas frontier. The worshippers followed the growing community—first to a Spring Creek schoolhouse, then into the new railroad town of Plano after 1874—and became a full station in 1888. Generations of church buildings and outreach programs trace the town's growth from prairie settlement to modern suburb.