John Bryan McPheres Hightower was born in December 1822 in Georgia. By 1846, he lived in Red River, Texas with his father and brother. Three years later, he wed Mary E. Morris in Cherokee County, and the couple moved to Erath County with three children by the time of the 1860 census. The family had earlier settled on a large ranch in this area. In 1870, the Hightowers formally set aside almost two acres here for a cemetery. Before that time, they had buried three children at the site, and some of the unmarked graves may date to earlier than 1870. At the cemetery that year, the community buried the first person outside the Hightower family, Reuben Phillips. A search party had found his body near the ranch after he had been attacked by Indians. John B. Hightower died in 1878, and Henry Killian bought the ranch. In 1895, he officially deeded the burial ground to a cemetery association, which has continued to maintain the historic site. Today, the site is the final resting place of military veterans, members of fraternal organizations and generations of area residents. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2003