In 1823, the deacons of Bethel Baptist Church acquired a half-acre lot at this site to build a church and establish a burial ground. The original church was replaced in 1864, but a half century later the Baptists demolished it and built a larger church and a parsonage at the corner of South Washington and West Jefferson Streets. The cemetery remained and was enclosed with an iron fence. The church conveyed the cemetery to the Montgomery County Historical Society in 1973, and title was transferred to Peerless Rockville for caretaking in 1983. Peerless Rockville added benches and a picket fence. Gravestones in the cemetery date between 1839 and 1896. Late 19th century development of the West End and the opening of South Van Buren Street required relocation of 16 graves to Rockville Cemetery. Twenty-eight marble and sandstone grave markers remain. Several people notable in Rockville's history are buried here, including Samuel Clark Veirs, postmaster of Rockville, Chief Judge of the Orphan's Court, and operator of Veirs Mill, and his son-in-law William Veirs Bouic, Jr., who was a judge, farmer, State's Attorney, president of Rockville's Board of Commissioners, organizer of the Montgomery County Agricultural Society, trustee of the Rockville Academy, and a director of the C and O Canal Company.