In 1890 Henry J. Runge laid out the town of Arcadia at the site of a railroad depot on the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad near Hall's Station, and sometime between 1890 and 1897 Evergreen Cemetery was established to serve the growing community. The first person known to be buried there was Susan Carswell Sims, who died in 1897. The Evergreen Cemetery Association was formed in 1906, with J.L. Polinard, R.H. Romine, and S.A. Franks as the original trustees; that same year the cemetery received a state charter, and in 1907 Henry Runge deeded the 2-acre cemetery plot to the association. At that time the cemetery contained 13 known gravesites. Between 1906 and 1949 at least 47 people are known to have been buried there. When the charter was not renewed in 1956, the Arcadia Chamber of Commerce led a successful effort to renew it in 1958, and under the new charter the cemetery's purpose was to provide a burial place for indigent residents of Arcadia. The last person buried in Evergreen Cemetery was Josephine Short in 1958. Arcadia volunteers restored the grounds, and Galveston County built a road to the cemetery, with both projects completed in 1972.