Welsh Hills Cemetery was established on land that had once been part of the United States Military Tract given to veterans of the Revolutionary War and later owned by Philadelphia Welshman Samson Davis. On September 4, 1801, co-founders of the Welsh Hills community Theophilus Rees and Thomas Philipps, who came from Carmarthenshire, Wales, purchased part of that land. On February 6, 1808, Theophilus Rees donated part of his land for the cemetery, and on that same day his 8-year-old grandson, Rees Thomas, became the first person interred. The first Welsh Hills Baptist Church also stood on this site in a cabin owned by “Big” David Thomas, Theophilus Rees's son-in-law. Theophilus and his wife Elizabeth are buried here with their descendants and those of Thomas Philipps and other Welsh settler families. Among the most noteworthy people buried here is Thomas David Jones, a sculptor known for his stone bust of Abraham Lincoln and Vicksburg Memorial in the Ohio Statehouse, whose grave is marked by a simple boulder that he engraved.