Historical Marker

Mattox Cemetery

Historical marker location:

New Diana, Texas

( FM 726, 1 mi. W of New Diana)

Several families from Alabama and Georgia settled in this area in the 1850s. According to oral history, slaves were interred around this site. The first recorded burial was that of Milla Ann Greer Oliver, who died in 1861. The graveyard became known as the "Old Family Cemetery." William and Martha Greer deeded land including this site for a church and cemetery in 1887. A cemetery association was formed in 1970. Members of the Covin, Jones, Loyd, Mattox, Oliver, Williams, and Willeford families are interred here. Of the more than four hundred burials, several are those of veterans of U. S. and international conflicts from the Civil War to the Vietnam War. The Mattox Cemetery remains a chronicle of the pioneers of Upshur County. (1999).