Cottonwood Cemetery

Cottonwood Cemetery. . For serving in the Texas Revolution of 1835-36, South Carolina native Parrott E. McNeese received land in this area in 1846. McNeese and his wife, Mary (Allcorn), had three surviving children, including George Washington McNeese (b. 1840), who made his first trip to Hill County in 1861. After serving as a Confederate Army 1st Lt. during the Civil War, George farmed his inherited 500 acres and later increased his land holdings, growing primarily cotton and corn and raising mules and horses. George married Sallie Poteet in 1869, and six of their nine children reached adulthood., After their infant son died in 1873, George and Sallie McNeese deeded 7.7 acres for a public school and graveyard, initially known as McNeese Cemetery. In 1882, George and other settlers brought German families from Brenham to the Cottonwood community, which included a mercantile store, cotton gin, and school. George and Sallie both died in 1909 and were buried in a family plot near their infant son. Veterans from the Texas Revolution to the Korean War are interred here. William J. Gray, who served in Erastus (Deaf) Smith's Ranger Company in 1837, never married but fostered 14 orphans (including five nieces and nephews). Two other notable burials include husband and wife World War II veterans, Altus Manuel Horn, prisoner of war and Bronze Star recipient, and Ruth B. Cotton Horn, Woman's Army Corps. There are more than 300 known graves, with many unmarked. Gravestone materials include concrete, fieldstone, granite, marble, sandstone, steel, ceramic photographs, and family plot fencing. In 1979, after years of neglected maintenance, a group which formally organized in 1991 as the Cottonwood Cemetery Association dedicated themselves to preserving this historic burial ground, the only remaining indication of the once-thriving Cottonwood community. , Historic Texas Cemetery - 2009