Pioneers William D. and Delina Walker Hollis arrived in Texas in 1837 and purchased land in what became the Hollis community in 1855, while Joshua and Martha Terrell Ford bought adjoining land in 1860. Oral history relates that a baby born to slaves was buried on the Hollis farm prior to the Civil War. The first marked burial on the Hollis land was that of William B. Best in 1861, and the first marked grave on the Fords' adjoining property was that of Martha Ford's mother, Isabella Terrell, in 1868. Each family set aside acreage from their property for a community cemetery. Later owners of the land included J.W. Eaves and J. Milton Jackson, whose heirs later deeded the cemetery land to the Rock Prairie Cemetery Association.