Trinidad Cemetery
Trinidad, Henderson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
On January 30, 1869, Onslow M. Airheart (1834-1883) purchased 1476 acres on the bank of the Trinity River. Airheart was an early pioneer to Henderson County, served as a 1st lieutenant for the Confederate Army and owned and operated a ferry for many years. His wife, Mary, died in 1874 and was buried across the river from their property in Navarro County. Airheart wanted to be buried next to his wife but, when Airheart died on December 22, 1883, he was buried on his property due to flooding conditions. Airheart’s estate was divided among his remaining family. In the early 1920s, the Texas Power and Llight Company purchased around 1700 acres of land that included the Airheart Private Cemetery. The company agreed to provide additional acreage to establish a city cemetery for the town of Trinidad. Additional acreage was added in 1974 and 2002. A cemented floor pavilion and a brick entrance was added. Airheart’s twin brother, Moses C. Airheart (1834-1887), a Civil War veteran, is buried here along with their half-brother, Charles Wesley Airheart (1854-1911). Many of their descendants are buried at the Trinidad Cemetery. Moses Airheart’s grandson, Onclo Merel Airheart (1918-2001), a highly decorated World War II hero who fought alongside Audie Murphy, is also buried here. Another family buried here is the Pulley family. The Pulleys were very involved in the growth of the town of Trinidad. This historic cemetery transformed from a small family cemetery to the Trinidad City Cemetery and is a testament to generations past.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The cemetery grew from the private burial ground of pioneer Onslow M. Airheart, a Confederate lieutenant and ferry operator who bought land here along the Trinity River in 1869. In the 1920s the Texas Power and Light Company, which acquired the land, helped convert it into a city cemetery for Trinidad. Generations of the Airheart and Pulley families lie here, including a Civil War veteran and a decorated World War II soldier who fought alongside Audie Murphy.
Why it matters
This burial ground charts a Henderson County town's growth from a single pioneer family's plot to a community cemetery, its graves spanning the Confederacy through World War II.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Onslow M. Airheart
- · Moses C. Airheart
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
The Trinity River
Trinidad, TX
Fed by its West, Elm, and East forks, the Trinity River has drawn people to its valley for thousands of years — the prehistoric Malakoff Man carved stone heads found nearby attest to habitation in the distant past, and Indian villages lined its banks when Europeans arrived. French explorer La Salle called it the River of Canoes in 1687, and the Spaniard Alonso de León gave it the name "Trinity" in 1690. Its fertile floodplain lured Republic-era settlers, and steamboats carried cotton, cattle, and lumber toward Galveston until the railroads arrived and ended the riverboat era, giving rise to towns like Trinidad.
Malakoff
Malakoff, TX
Malakoff began in the 1830s as the settlement of Caney Creek, centered on the grist mill of an Alabama widow, Jane Irvine, and later took the name Mitcham Chapel after an 1852 Methodist church. When a post office opened in 1855, residents chose Malakoff—after a Russian town made famous in the Crimean War. The railroad's arrival in 1880 shifted the town to a new site, and the 1912 discovery of lignite coal made mining Henderson County's largest industry.
Rural Shade
Kerens, TX
By 1850 families had gathered near the Wildcat Ferry on the Trinity River, and a gravel road from Corsicana soon ran through the settlement that became Rural Shade. A post office arrived in 1858, a school district in 1867, and by the century's turn the community of log-cabin farmers had grown to include fine homes, churches, and hundreds of schoolchildren. Rural Shade thrived until World War II drew its young people to the cities, after which its old school became a community center kept alive by yearly reunions.
Long Prairie Cemetery
Kerens, TX
In 1870 Lawrence S. Taylor sold five acres for school and church use, and the site soon served the Long Prairie community as schoolhouse, Methodist church, and graveyard together. The first burial, in 1872, was a child, Sallie K. Burt. Fraternal emblems and veterans' graves—reaching back to the Civil War—still mark the ground, also known as Alligator Cemetery.