Late in the 19th century, a small settlement called Alligator Head developed on the coast of Matagorda Bay in Calhoun County. In 1910, the Calhoun County Cattle Company filed a plat for a town site and named it Port O'Connor in honor of Tom M. O'Connor of Victoria, from whom the land was purchased. As the town was established and grew rapidly, a cemetery site became necessary. The first known burial there was Lola May McCarty in 1913, and the oldest marked grave is that of Juan Pena, 1851-1919, though many unmarked graves likely exist. On the Texas coast, the cemetery has faced harsh natural conditions, and hurricanes in 1919, 1942, and 1945 swept Port O'Connor, damaging the cemetery and displacing many grave markers. It is the final resting place of many important community members, including members of several lighthouse-keeping families connected with the Matagorda Island Lighthouse, and some graves from Saluria on Matagorda Island were reinterred there because of erosion. Its east-to-west rows of gravestones, made of marble, wood, granite, plastic, and concrete, and decorated with ships, anchors, shells, and driftwood, reflect the town's saltwater heritage and its spirit of determination and survival.