The earliest documented grave here is that of Mary Isabella Alexander Also interred that year were Franklin Day and Nancy Smith By the s the Hickory Grove Cemetery was fully established as a community burial ground. The Methodist Church was relocated in , providing more space for grave sites where the sanctuary had once stood. Additional land acquisitions, including property deeded by Sam and Dicie Swan in and F.
Simpson in enlarged the cemetery grounds. A building referred to as 'the shed' was built in the s for funeral services, but it burned in The Hickory Grove Cemetery contains over 1, graves. The tombstones, diverse in style and size, serve as reminders of the area's pioneer heritage. Many mark the graves of infants and children and are a testament to the often harsh conditions of pioneer life.
A cemetery association maintains the historic graveyard. Ben Budd. By , the Republic of Texas' landscape was being broken into large parcels of land, similar to a giant patchwork quilt.
Land was granted to early settlers of this vast wilderness. In the years that followed, Tilton's land would be broken into still smaller portions and sold to settlers coming to this new frontier. By the 's more settlers were making their way to the 'Grand Prairie' of Lamar County, Texas, and they were making their presence felt; they would change forever the face of this once barren region.
Most of these pioneers came seeking the fertile soils of Texas because they were farmers. With them, they brought little else than their personal, religious and political convictions to see them through the hardships. They came to live, and they came to die, if necessary, on the land.
