Troup City Cemetery
Troup, Smith County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This community burial ground originally served the early settlers of Zavala, later known as Troup, a town established along a line of the International & Great Northern Railroad in 1873. Since no land was set aside for a public cemetery when the town was platted, efforts were made to secure a tract from the railroad. As a result of the influence of city leaders, prominent local residents, and Judge William Wright Morris, the area representative to the Texas Legislature, the railroad provided 1.67 acres of land at this site in 1875 for a burial ground, known then as Zavala City Cemetery. The earliest known grave is that of South Carolina native William A. Arms. Originally buried in New Orleans, he was reinterred here in the 1870s by his widow Martha Ann (Walker) Arms and his son Marion Francis Arms. Also buried here are three early mayors of the city, Dr. Erasmus Manley Hanna, William Clark Spruce, and Judge Stephen Decatur Morris. Leaders in securing the first rail line to the area, they were instrumental in having this site set aside for use as a public cemetery. Other graves here include those of prominent local residents and community leaders who contributed to the development of the area.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When the International & Great Northern Railroad platted the town of Zavala—later Troup—in 1873, it set aside no ground for the dead. Local leaders and Judge William Wright Morris pressed the railroad, which in 1875 deeded 1.67 acres for a public burial ground. Among the earliest interred was South Carolina native William A. Arms, reinterred here by his widow, alongside three of the town's early mayors who had helped bring the rail line through.
Why it matters
It shows how a Reconstruction-era railroad town literally made room for community—and how ordinary settlers organized to secure the shared institutions a frontier town needed.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · William Wright Morris
- · William A. Arms
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Knoxville
New Summerfield, TX
In 1854 Tennessee native Thomas Norman and partners platted the town of Knoxville, selling lots and setting aside ground for a community church. Stores, a mill, a distillery, a blacksmith, and a school soon followed—though residents proudly noted the town never had a saloon, even as every store sold whiskey. When the International Railroad bypassed it in 1872, business drained away to Troup, and today only the Knoxville cemetery marks the spot.
John Franklin Overton
Omen, TX
John Franklin Overton left Tennessee for Texas in 1845 with his wife and mother, accumulating some 1,600 acres through land grants in the Smith County area. Twice married and father of eleven, he supplied goods to the Confederacy during the Civil War and carried the courtesy title of 'Colonel.' In 1871 he donated land to the International Railroad Company, and the nearby town of Overton took his name.
Henry's Chapel Community
Troup, TX
In 1848 the Presbyterian minister William Porter Henry moved from Alabama to northeastern Cherokee County, where he preached for the rest of his life. Nearby investors platted the town of Knoxville in 1854, but it withered after the International and Great Northern Railway bypassed it for Troup in 1872. To serve the farmers who stayed, Henry donated five acres in 1874 for a school, church, and cemetery, and the community that gathered around them took his name; today the historic cemetery is its last physical trace.
James Calhoun Hill
Tyler, TX
Migrating from Alabama in 1840, James Calhoun Hill led the first permanent settlers into the future Smith County and helped run its boundaries and plat the county seat at Tyler in 1846. He prospered as a surveyor and planter in the 1850s, but by the Civil War's end in 1865 he was blind and much reduced in means. Still, in 1874 he donated land to bring a railroad into the county, and he and his wife Rebecca raised eleven children.