Zion Cemetery became the burial ground for early pioneers of Grimes County and their descendants after settlers formed the Methodist Episcopal Church, South in 1852 on three acres bought from L.E. Jones, where a log cabin church also served as the McCary School. When deaths occurred in the settlement, graves were placed among the trees, beginning the cemetery, and although the church later moved to Iola, the cemetery remained in the community and continued to grow. In August 1867, Priscilla McMahan donated 3.46 acres adjoining the original approximate 3-acre tract. Its burials include many early pioneers and settlers, among them Katy Holland McDowell Treadwell Cobb (1815-1886), a member of Austin's Old Three-Hundred. The earliest grave is that of John William Diserens (1839-1857), who died on July 12, 1857, and his father, early pioneer John David Diserens (1796 1867), is also buried there. The cemetery is also the final resting place of veterans of the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, as well as people lost in the yellow fever epidemic of 1867 and numerous infants. The Iola Cemetery Association, founded before World War II, manages the historic cemetery, while ownership remains with Zion United Methodist Church in Iola.