Liberty Grove Cemetery

LIBERTY GROVE WAS A LOOSE-KNIT FARMING COMMUNITY LOCATED IN THE EXTREME NORTHEASTERN CORNER OF McLENNAN COUNTY. IN THE LATE 19TH CENTURY, A MASONIC LODGE AND SCHOOL MARKED THE CENTER OF THE SCATTERED SETTLEMENT.

LIBERTY GROVE CEMETERY IS LOCATED ON THE COUNTY LINE ROAD THAT DIVIDES McLENNAN AND HILL COUNTIES. THE FIRST MARKED GRAVE AT THE BURIAL SITE IS THAT OF MARY BURTON, WHO DIED IN 1850. U. S. - MEXICO WAR AND CIVIL WAR VETERAN W.M. HOLLAND (d. 1907) IS ALSO BURIED HERE. C.T. TINSLEY, HIS FATHER-IN-LAW JAMES T. RUSSELL, AND BROTHER-IN-LAW HENRY RUSSELL, WHO WERE ALL CONFEDERATE VETERANS, DIED ON MARCH 23, 1862, AND WERE BURIED AT THE CEMETERY. AFTER SEVERAL MEMBERS OF HIS FAMILY WERE BURIED AT THE SITE, C.T. RUSSELL OFFICIALLY DONATED THE FIRST PORTION OF THE CEMETERY IN 1883 TO TRUSTEES W.H. WESTMORELAND, B.H. YOUNG AND C.M. ADAMS. A.W. RUSSELL EXPANDED THE SITE IN 1910 BY CONVEYING ADDITIONAL ACREAGE TO THE LIBERTY GROVE CEMETERY ASSOCIATION, WHICH HAD BEEN ESTABLISHED PRIOR TO THAT DATE. THE ASSOCIATION CONTINUES TO OVERSEE THE CEMETERY’S OPERATIONS.

LIBERTY GROVE MASONIC LODGE NO. 475 WAS CHARTERED IN DECEMBER 1877, AND THE LIBERTY GROVE SCHOOL DISTRICT WAS CREATED IN JANUARY 1884. THE 1881 CONSTRUCTION OF THE MISSOURI, KANSAS AND TEXAS RAILROAD THROUGH THE NEIGHBORING TOWN OF WEST CAUSED A SHIFT IN THE AREA POPULATION, AND MANY CHOSE TO RELOCATE CLOSER TO THE RAIL LINE. THE MASONIC LODGE WAS MOVED TO WEST IN 1893, AND THE LIBERTY GROVE SCHOOL WAS CONSOLIDATED WITH THE WEST SCHOOL IN THE 1940s. TODAY, LIBERTY GROVE CEMETERY SERVES AS A REMINDER OF THE MANY RURAL FARM SETTLEMENTS OF EARLY TEXAS.