The first known settlers in Montague County arrived in 1849, and after the county was formed in 1857, the City of Montague was created a year later as the county seat. The town grew slowly at first, but by 1871 it was developing rapidly and drawing new settlers. James M. Gibbons, an early pioneer from Tennessee, is said by family history to have donated the first plot of land in this cemetery for the burial of his wife, Elizabeth Lankford Gibbons, after her death in 1862. He later married Nancy Elizabeth Furr, who is also buried there. Gibbons died in 1899 and was interred there as well, along with several other family members and numerous early settlers. The cemetery contains both marked and unmarked graves, and about 60 legible tombstones bear dates from the 1800s. Several Confederate veterans and a few early Texas Rangers are also buried there, linking the graveyard closely to the early settlement and history of the Montague area.