Many people instrumental in the early development of this area are buried in Kyle Cemetery. Colonel Clairborne Kyle, one of Hays County's original settlers, buried his adopted son, willie Parks, here in 1849. Although Parks' interment is the first recorded at this site, local tradition claims that a man found hanging from a live oak tree located within these cemetery grounds was the first person buried here; that tree was thereafter referred to as "the hanging tree." Although it is believed that Claiborne Kyle set aside fifteen acres of his land surrounding these early interments for use as a community the first legal document mentioning Kyle Cemetery is a deed executed by his son, Polk, donating 5 acres for a burial ground in 1877. five additional acres were purchased for the cemetery in 1899 from Jason and Fannie Wilson by trustees w. L. Stephenson, J. H. white and d. W. Benner. Another five acres were donated to the newly incorporated cemetery in 1906 by O. g. Parke. Among the gravesites here are those of many area pioneers, including the Claiborne Kyle family, Edward Burleson, Jr., Ezekiel Nance, and veterans of the American Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean Conflict and the Vietnam War.