French Cemetery

According to local tradition, French Cemetery takes its name from a group of French settlers who were killed and buried near the site sometime during the 18th century, though no physical evidence of those burials has been found, and the name has been in common use for more than 100 years. Known in the mid-1800s as the Pruett Family Cemetery, the graveyard lies on land acquired from the Mexican government in 1824 by Beasley Pruett, who was buried there in an unmarked grave after his death in 1835. The earliest marked grave, dated 1860, is that of Martha Day, a daughter-in-law of Beasley Pruett. Others buried there include early Liberty County settlers and Pruett family descendants such as Reason Green, who held several 19th-century public offices, as well as members of the Brashear and Linney families. Veterans of four wars and the Korean conflict are also interred there. In 1946, landowners W.T. Jamison, Sr. and J.N. Coleman formally set aside these two acres as part of the sale of the surrounding land, and the cemetery remains an important reflection of Liberty County history.

Texas · United States