Elm Grove Cemetery

Members of the pioneer Roland family, natives of Alabama, settled here in the 1830s. Land at this site was part of a Republic of Texas land grant awarded to family members in recognition of the military service of John Roland, who was killed during the Texas Revolution. Receiving the property were his mother, Martha Roland Arrington, and two brothers Sherrod and Ezekial Roland. A veteran of the Texas Revolution, Ezekial (b. 1824) and his wife Mahala (Pace) set aside this part of the land grant for use as a public cemetery. The first burial here was that of the donor, Ezekial Roland, who died at the age of 35, in 1859. The pioneer Elm Grove Cemetery also served the earliest residents of the Seven Points community, later known as Westminster. Established in the 1860s, the town was the site of an early Methodist school, Westminster College, which operated here until the early 1900s, and a later Baptist academy. Still in use, Elm Grove Cemetery contains over 1500 known graves and 250 unidentified gravesites. For over 100 years it was served as the burial site of pioneers, community leaders, and residents of the surrounding rural area. ** (11981)***.