Texas statesman Jose Antonio Navarro transferred land along the Atascosa River to his eldest son Jose Antonio George Navarro. J.A.G. Navarro then gave 160 acres there to his daughter Maria Antonia Navarro in 1870 on the occasion of her marriage in San Antonio to Scotsman John C. Ross, and one acre at the site was reserved for a cemetery. After 1873, Ross and his brother William founded the community of Rossville there. The first burial was Juana Chaves Navarro, wife of J.A.G. Navarro. Other pioneers who lived in the area before Rossville was founded are buried there, including members of the Alvarez, Bergara, Castanon, Cruz, Galindo, Gonzales, Tabberer, Tober, Riojas, and Stokes families. Confederate veteran Clemente Galindo and his wife Martha Goins Galindo are buried there with many of their descendants. By the 1920s the road to the graveyard was often impassable, so John Ross was buried in the family plot at the Episcopal Church Cemetery one mile east, while his wife Maria Antonia was buried there near their home site. Other Navarro, Chaves, and Ross descendants are also buried there, including Texas Ranger Captain Tom Ross, son of John and Maria Antonia Ross.