Desdemona was a well established frontier community by the 1870s, with a post office opening there in 1877. In 1880, J.S. and Rosa Jones deeded one acre from the D.W. Funderburgh land survey for a public graveyard. The earliest marked grave is that of William E. Wright, who lived from 1815 to 1878, and older unmarked burials likely exist among the oak trees. Some early graves are marked by native rocks incised with initials or dates. Those buried there include pioneer settlers and their descendants, frontier matriarch Mrs. Kate (Kizzie) Shuler, veterans of the Civil War, World War I and World War II, Capt. A.J. O'Rear, who was a county commissioner and postmaster, S.E. Snodgrass, a physician who served the area for 50 years, local citizens who profited from the 1918 oil boom, Joe and Almeda Duke, owners of the site of the first oil gusher, and many young children. In 1918-19, oil discoveries surrounded the cemetery with flowing wells and oil derricks. In 1965, H.H. Williams' estate donated two acres of land. The Desdemona Cemetery Association manages and maintains the site, which continues to serve the area as it has for more than a century.