Crawford Trees (1823-1889) came to Texas in 1845 and married fellow Illinois native Anna Kimmel (1831-1913) in 1846. He went to California during the Gold Rush in 1849 and returned to Texas two years later with enough money to purchase 5,458 acres of land. In 1855, Crawford and Anna, who eventually became the parents of ten children, donated land for a community school and church. They established this cemetery after Anna's brother, Philip Kimmel, and a friend, William Stiles, were killed in a shooting on August 21, 1856. Primarily a family burial ground, it also contains the graves of a number of family friends, and it remains in use by Trees descendants and is maintained by a family association.