Farmersville, one of the oldest towns in Collin County, has historic ties to the antebellum era of Texas and to the pioneer settlement of Sugar Hill, founded by John Yeary one and a half miles northeast. The center of settlement shifted to this area in the 1850s with the beginning of Farmersville, a community named for the agricultural background of its pioneer residents. In 1875, Pride Lodge No. 208 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows formed with 15 charter members, and in 1899 the organization established a cemetery on a high hill at the north edge of town. The Odd Fellows, known as the Three Link Fraternity for three chain links symbolizing friendship, love, and truth, originated in 18th-century England. The earliest marked grave in the cemetery is that of Mattie Robinson Hicks, who died in 1898, and the second oldest marked grave was for a child of G.C. Burkett; other early graves include individuals reinterred from nearby family cemeteries and rural burial grounds. Enlarged over the years, the cemetery encompasses 25 acres of landscaped grounds and includes a 1902 mausoleum, carved statuary including one of a sailor, and memorial stones reflecting changing architectural design influences. Still in use, it also chronicles the history of Farmersville through the lives of people who made their home there from the pioneer era to modern times.