The Ovilla community was founded by members of the Peters Colony in 1844, and Benjamin and Erixna Caroline McFarlin were among the early members of its thriving farm community. On November 17, 1886, they deeded four acres to the new Ovilla Methodist Episcopal Church, South, for a church building and a burial ground. Though there may have been earlier burials, the earliest marked grave is that of Rebecca Summers McElroy, wife of Tom C. McElroy, who died in 1884. Among the more than 440 people buried there are early settlers, at least seven veterans of the Civil War, and veterans of World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, preserving a chronicle of the pioneers of the Ovilla community.