Before Callahan County organized, settlers built homes in this area, and many more families arrived after the Texas and Pacific Railroad came in 1880. A town was officially named in 1898 to honor U.S. District Attorney William Hawley Atwell. For decades, residents used cemeteries at Cottonwood, Sabanno, Scranton, and Zion Hill until Gideon and Frances Howell deeded land in 1917 for a community burial ground to Atwell’s Baptist, Christian, and Methodist churches. Several military headstones stand here, including those of two young men killed in France during World War I. The community reached a peak with stores, a cotton gin, a school, and churches, but declined after World War II. In 1970, the Atwell Cemetery Association formed to maintain the burial ground.