Our History

The Cemetery

The Columbia Cemetery, generally known as the Old Columbia Cemetery, began as a small community burial area on the 1,900-acre plantation of Josiah Hughes & Mary Elizabeth McKensie Bell. Josiah Bell came to Texas with Stephen F. Austin in 1821. Following the colony’s first survey on February 23, 1823, Bell relocated in January 1824 to the first land grant deeded in the colony which was on the west side of the lower Brazos. After establishing a “landing” on the Brazos which became known as Bell’s Landing or Marion, he laid out the town Columbia. He then sold the tract that took in both the eastern portion of Columbia (Marion) and moved to the western portion of Columbia, where he died on May 17, 1838, and was buried in what is now Old Columbia Cemetery. Columbia was where the first capital of Texas was established in 1836. Eventually, the original Columbia location became split into East Columbia and West Columbia.

Following Bell’s death, his wife, Mary Eveline McKenzie Bell, received a portion of his estate that included the community cemetery in a February 14, 1849, partition. On September 13, 1849, Mary Bell and her children agreed on further disposition of the land.

On August 25, 1852, J. H. Bell’s sons, Thaddeus and James (apparently trustees of Mary Eveline Bell’s estate) gave a square 2.0-acre parcel of land that included the cemetery to the Presbyterian Church (Malcolm M. Conoly, et al), where a small church building had been constructed.

On November 8, 1869, Samuel H. Masters and his wife Kate deeded land which now comprises the front entrance of the cemetery.

In 1931 three small tracts that form the western edge of the cemetery were added. On May 4, 1931, two tracts of land (one 5,931 sq. ft. and one 7,000 sq. ft.) adjoining the cemetery were sold for $74.21 by R. B. Loggins to the Columbia Cemetery Association. On September 14, 1931, E. D. Upham sold the middle tract of land (9,100 sq. ft) adjoining the cemetery to the Columbia Cemetery Association for $52.22.

Articles of Incorporation for the Columbia Cemetery Association were drawn up April 25, 1933, and were filed with the State of Texas. M. A. Weems, Mrs. Mary Phillips, Zuleika Weems, Betty Gayle, and T. M. Smith signed these Articles of Incorporation.

On October 17, 1933, the Old School Presbyterian Church gave the original 2.0-acre site plus the additions to the Columbia Cemetery Association to use as a cemetery for the community. The trustees for the cemetery association were Isaac T. Jones, Chauncey F. Beal, and J. E. Farmer.

In 1950 the Columbia Cemetery Association purchased .965 acres from the West Columbia Independent School District for $309.82 (Section 2).

In 1966 the Texas State Historical Survey Committee authorized a historical marker to the Columbia Cemetery.

More land was added to the cemetery property on May 1, 1979, as a result of a three-way trade that included land in the Smith subdivision. The Columbia Cemetery

Angelina Caldwell Kerr – 1825 (May have been reinterred)

Clinton Terry Duff, I – 1833

Commander Henry Stevenson Brown – 1834

Nathaniel Hazen – 1836

David McCormick – 1836 (May have been reinterred)

John Smith Davenport Byrom – 1837

Capt. Joseph Powell – 1837

Josiah Hughes Bell – 1838

Byrd Lockhart – 1839

Elizabeth McKenzie – 1840

Catherine McCormick – 1842