Pleasant Valley Cemetery
May, Brown County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1875, Robert Morrison English (1837-1910), his wife, Clarabelle Louisa (Stratham) English (1847-1914), and their children moved from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, to Brown County. They established a farm on 160 acres and helped develop the Pleasant Valley Community. In 1892, the English family donated land to the Missionary Baptist Church of Pleasant Valley (later Pleasant Valley Baptist Church) for a house of worship which also served as a school. The English family also donated land to the community for a cemetery. Additional acreage was added over the years from neighbors and community members to encompass more than eight acres. In 1949, the church disbanded and the cemetery association accepted the land and care of the building. Robert and Clarabelle English and many of their descendants are buried here, along with pioneers of the area. The first recorded burial is that of Nancy Emaline English, daughter of Robert and Clarabelle, in 1877. Veterans of U.S. Military conflicts dating to the Civil War, former pastors of local churches, educators, a Texas Ranger, civil servants and community leaders are also buried here. The cemetery is traditional in design with a variety of headstones, some with no markings. In 1906, the Pleasant Valley Cemetery Association formed to maintain the grounds, organizing annual meetings, reunions and Remembrance Days. Many burial plots have multiple generations and connections, demonstrating the deep family and community ties of the area.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1875 Robert Morrison English and his wife Clarabelle moved from Missouri to Brown County, establishing a 160-acre farm and helping build the Pleasant Valley community. The family donated land for a Missionary Baptist church that doubled as a school and for a cemetery that grew to more than eight acres, its first burial their own young daughter in 1877. Generations of pioneers, veterans reaching back to the Civil War, pastors, and educators rest here, their many interconnected family plots a testament to deep community ties.
Why it matters
Pleasant Valley Cemetery records the westward migration of farming families who carried church, school, and community with them as they settled the Texas interior after the Civil War.
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Related people
- · Robert Morrison English
- · Clarabelle Louisa English
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
May United Methodist Church
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Methodism reached this corner of Brown County with circuit-riding preachers in the 1860s, holding services in private homes before Mt. Zion Methodist Church was organized in 1882. The May Methodist Church formally took shape in 1886, gathering in a schoolhouse until members built their own one-room church in 1894 and later a brick sanctuary with stained glass. Fire destroyed that building in 2000, but the congregation's century-plus of service through depression, drought, and war endured.
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William W. and Pency Heflin settled here in 1875, and local tradition holds that the first burial was a child who died in 1876 after eating wild berries while his family camped on the property. The earliest marked grave, that of Robert Bonine, also dates to 1876, and a deed confirming the Heflins' donation of four acres was recorded in 1928. Among those resting here are many of the area's pioneer settlers and veterans of wars from the Civil War through World War II.
The May Community
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The land around May began as part of an 1827 Mexican grant to empresario John Cameron and drew its first pioneer families in the 1870s, who quickly organized Baptist and Methodist churches and a one-room school. Nathan L. May opened a trading post in 1879 and became the first postmaster, and by 1907 the village had a blacksmith, general store, newspaper, and bank. Its early growth peaked in 1911 when the railroad arrived.
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