Known from 1838 to 1899 as Deming's Bridge Cemetery, this site stood near the second post office in Matagorda County in 1858. Emelius Savage and his son Norman donated two acres for the cemetery and Tres Palacios Baptist Church, founded in 1852. Additional land was given by Jonathan E. Pierce, who in 1900 named the area Hawley in honor of United States senator Robert Bradley Hawley. Buried here are the brothers Jonathan E. and Abel H. ("Shang") Pierce, many other notable early cattlemen, and more than 50 veterans of the Civil War and all U.S. wars since 1865.