Seven Star Cemetery
Temple, Bell County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Temple incorporated in 1882, the same year the Missouri, Kansas and Texas (MKT) Railway built a line through this area. This land was most likely owned by the rail company, but few records exist about the burial ground's early history. Many stories surround the cemetery, though, including that it began as a slave cemetery in the 1860s or as a public burial ground for African American residents. Over the years, the site has been known by many names, including MKT, Temple League and Seven Star Cemetery. The latter name, used today, has particular significance because of the traditions related to the Underground Railroad. It is believed that seven stars, including the North Star, helped guide slaves to their freedom before the close of the Civil War. Although fewer than 100 graves at the site retain their original markers, Seven Star Cemetery is the final resting place of nearly 500 individuals whose stories are part of Temple's rich history. Those buried here include former slaves as well as veterans of the Spanish-American and first World wars. The local chapter of the Juneteenth Association maintains the site. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2005
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Established in the 1860s along the MKT rail line near Temple, this burial ground has gone by many names but is remembered today as Seven Star Cemetery — a reference to the North Star and the constellation traditions said to have guided people escaping slavery toward freedom. Though fewer than 100 of its roughly 500 graves keep their original markers, those buried here include formerly enslaved people and veterans of the Spanish-American War and World War I. The local Juneteenth Association tends the site.
Why it matters
As a resting place for former slaves and Black veterans, the cemetery is a tangible link to African American life in Central Texas from bondage through emancipation and into the era of military service and citizenship.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Cyrus Maxwell Campbell
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Raised near Travis in Austin County, Cyrus Maxwell Campbell enlisted in the Confederate army at 21 and rose to captain in the 16th Texas Infantry. After the war he farmed with the help of Freedmen, then turned to lumber, opening Campbell & Lovitt Lumber in Temple in 1888 and expanding across Central Texas until the Depression closed the family enterprise in the 1930s.
Raleigh Richardson White, Sr.
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Born to a wealthy Missouri plantation family, Raleigh R. White defied his father to join the Confederate army at 21, serving under Nathan Bedford Forrest and rising to acting colonel. A religious conversion after the war redirected his life: ordained a Baptist minister in 1873, he moved his large family to Texas in 1882 and became an influential itinerant preacher, active in seminaries, missions, and Baptist work among African Americans. His son later founded the Temple hospital that grew into Scott & White.
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In the decades after Appomattox, Confederate veterans gathered to keep the memory of their service alive, and in 1906 the survivors of Hood's Texas Brigade held their 42nd reunion in Temple. The men met at the First Baptist Church, rode in one of Temple's first automobile parades, heard a memorial ceremony led by the brigade's original chaplain, and closed with a rousing chorus of 'Dixie.' Founded in 1872, the veterans' association held reunions until 1934.
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