Morton Cemetery is the burial place of notable pioneers including Republic of Texas president Mirabeau B. Lamar, who served from 1838 to 1841, and Jane Long, one of the state's first women settlers, known as "The Mother of Texas." It stands on Labor No. 1 of the Mexican land grant to William Morton, a settler of 1822 in the advance party of Austin's "Old 300" colonists. The cemetery was founded in 1825 when Morton buried Robert Gelaspie (Gillespie), a fellow Mason who had met with foul play, and he later erected a handmade brick tomb there, the first known Masonic landmark in Texas. Morton died in the 1833 Brazos flood and his body was lost. His widow Nancy inherited Labor No. 1 and sold it to Handy & Lusk, promoters of the Richmond townsite. In 1854 Michael DeChaumes acquired the parcel of land encompassing the cemetery. In the 1890s Morton Lodge No. 72, A. F. & A. M., gained possession of DeChaumes Cemetery and operated it as Richmond Masonic Cemetery until the early 1940s, when it was turned over to the newly formed Richmond Cemetery Association, later retitled Morton Cemetery Association, likely to conform to the name Morton Cemetery, which had been in use since the era of lodge ownership. The cemetery became a memorial to its founder.
