Two early area families established cemeteries at this site in the 1870s after the Campbell and Sansom families purchased land in the vicinity. The first documented burial was seven-month-old Ula Sansom, who died in 1876 and was buried in the Sansom family plot. The following year, Louisianna Campbell, born in 1826 and died in 1877, was buried in the Campbell plot, and several more burials were made during the next two decades. In 1881, the railroad came to Alvarado and brought many new residents, and as more families settled in the area and the need for additional cemetery space grew, many buried their loved ones near the Sansom and Campbell plots. In 1896, the local Knight of Pythias and I.O.O.F. lodges established burial grounds on land surrounding the two family plots. During the Great Depression, the City of Alvarado took over care for the cemeteries, which were known collectively as Glenwood Cemetery. Additional land enlarged the graveyard, and in 1970 a cemetery association formed to maintain and preserve the site. Today, the burial ground remains a link to early pioneers and the history of generations of Alvarado residents.