Originally tied to a community first known as Swayback Mountain, then called Wayback after a clerical error in 1884, and renamed Pearl in 1890 for the young cousin of postmaster E.P. Davenport, Pearl Cemetery grew out of local burial needs in the early 1890s, when residents were often buried in the nearby Hope, Bee House, and King cemeteries. The earliest known burial in Pearl was Lottie May Manning, interred in the Methodist churchyard in the spring of 1893. The first known burial in Pearl Cemetery was fourteen-year-old Lillian Keeton in June 1896. Her relatives, J.H. and Emily Keeton, gave the land where she was buried, set aside five acres as private burial plots, and deeded 4.1 acres to the school district for public burials, creating a community cemetery. Those interred include several victims of the Influenza Epidemic of 1918, among them Dr. H.W. Lingswallow, who contracted the disease while treating patients; three Civil War veterans; veterans of World War I and World War II; and veterans of the Korean and Vietnam wars. Among them was World War I veteran Dr. F.B. King of North Carolina, grandson of Eleanor Houston King, a relative of General Sam Houston. Formed in 1972, the Pearl Cemetery Association has helped sustain a burial ground that continues to serve the community as a chronicle of Coryell County pioneers and military veterans.