T.H. Zanderson and Jourdan Campbell, for whom Jourdanton was named, bought the forty-thousand-acre Toby Ranch in 1907 and laid out the town, whose original plat set aside two blocks for a cemetery. After the Artesian Belt Railroad was built through the site, Jourdanton grew quickly, developing early businesses and institutions and improving shipment of livestock and produce to San Antonio and other points. In 1910, citizens moved the Atascosa County seat from Pleasanton to Jourdanton. The city cemetery originally served all denominations, though Lutheran and Catholic cemeteries were later established elsewhere. Its earliest marked graves are those of Roland Purgason, an infant who died in 1910, and William P. White, who died in 1911. The Jourdanton City Cemetery Association was organized in 1918 with John Moore as its first president, and in the 1950s it added acreage that expanded the cemetery to more than three city blocks. About one hundred identified veterans are buried there, including at least seven who served in the Civil War. Notable burials and gravestones include members of fraternal organizations and several law enforcement personnel, among them four sheriffs and one deputy killed in the line of duty. With grave markers ranging from simple wooden crosses to curbed family plots, the cemetery reflects the cultural and economic diversity of this South Texas town, which was built rapidly because of the railroad and drew residents of varied ethnic backgrounds.