Frenchman Claude Nicholas Pillot, the earliest known settler on Willow Creek, immigrated with his family to the United States in 1832 and to Texas in 1837, and he and his wife, Jeanne, established a home and farm in the area that soon attracted other French settlers. Before permanent church and school buildings could be constructed, services and classes were held in private homes. The cemetery began as a family burial ground after the death of August Pillot, the 21-year-old son of Claude and Jeanne, in September 1844, and the Pillots also provided burial spaces for friends and neighbors, though the family plot remained the focal point of the graveyard. A large monument at the center of the plot was manufactured in France and shipped to Cypress for transport to the cemetery. Claude Pillot died in New Orleans after a business trip, while Jeanne died at home in 1866 and was buried in the family plot. Although a few burials took place over the following decades, the graveyard was mostly untended until efforts began in 1959 to re-establish it as a community cemetery, and the last known burial occurred in 1997. About 70 graves are in the cemetery, including those of three Civil War veterans, and its burials and tombstones reflect the area's history.