This cemetery stands on land that was originally part of Jared E. Kirby's Alta Vista Plantation. According to oral tradition, the Kirby family set aside the land as a burial site for their slaves and for slaves from nearby Liendo Plantation, owned by Kirby's cousin, Leonard Waller Croce. The many unmarked graves are believed to date to the Antebellum period, when most slaves would not have had the resources to erect lasting grave markers. The cemetery continued in use by African Americans after the Civil War and after Kirby's widow, Helen Marr Swearingen Kirby, deeded the plantation to the state in 1876 for the Alta Vista College for Colored Youth, now Prairie View A&M University. It later became associated with and was named for Wyatt Chapel, a nearby African American church. The oldest marked grave is that of Mattie Wyatt Wells, who died in 1882 and was the daughter of a former slave. Area religious leaders, veterans of World Wars I and II, and former slaves and their descendants are also buried here. Used until the 1950s, the cemetery remains a tangible reminder of African Americans' historic presence in this area.