E.E. Willoughby, a cattleman from Tarrant County, moved to Rochelle, then about 1.5 miles southeast of this site, in 1883 and acquired land here in 1886 along the Brady-San Saba Road. In 1889 he donated two acres near this site for the community’s school and church building, which had been moved here from its original 1886 site about one mile south. After Willoughby’s 19-month-old son, Ernest Eckie, died in 1894, he buried the child near the school, and in 1896 he deeded one acre here as the Rochelle Cemetery. A new school was built here in 1899, but in 1903 the community and schoolhouse moved about 2 miles northwest to the new Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railroad. The cemetery continued to serve the relocated community, first named Crothers and soon renamed Rochelle. The tombstone of the Rev. and Mrs. C.W. Jones shows that she died in Crothers in 1906 and he died in Rochelle in 1910, though both died in their home in the same town. Willoughby deeded another acre to the cemetery in 1910, but he was ultimately buried in Brady at Live Oak Cemetery. A rock fence was built here in 1935, four more acres were purchased in 1943, and the cemetery contains almost 500 graves, including 105 unmarked ones. An association founded in 1972 cares for the grounds.