For generations before Anglo colonization, Indian tribes and Mexican settlers in this area are believed to have used this cemetery. After empresarios John McMullen and James McGloin established San Patricio de Hibernia in 1830, colonists continued to bury their dead on the hill. Local oral tradition holds that the earliest graves were marked by wooden crosses and stones with Spanish and English inscriptions. Those buried here include Lt. Marcelino Garcia, killed at the battle of Lipantitlan in 1835; soldiers who died in the battle of San Patricio on February 27, 1836; James McGloin, whose grave was never marked; victims of diseases such as scarlet fever; men killed in duels; and many early settlers and their descendants. After father Antoine Maury consecrated a new cemetery at San Patricio in 1872, use of the old hilltop burial ground became infrequent. Neglected for many years, it began to be restored in the 1960s, and although some tombstones were destroyed or lost, the historic graveyard is now maintained.