In 1895, six families left the disbanded Quaker settlement of Estacado in the Lubbock area and moved to Galveston County, where they established the community of Friendswood in honor of their faith and association with the Society of Friends, more commonly known as the Quakers. By November 1895, the settlers needed a burial ground after a falling tree killed young Newton Knode while he cut firewood with his father-in-law. His grave is the earliest marked burial at what became Friends Church Cemetery, beside the Friends church and school building on property owned by community founders T.H. Lewis and F.J. Brown. A church-appointed committee has cared for the cemetery throughout its history by arranging maintenance and establishing criteria for burial. The cemetery was open to all community residents for several decades, but when the town's population boomed in the late 20th century, new restrictions required church membership or early town residency to qualify for burial. Today, the cemetery remains a link to the early community and its religious founding.