This pioneer burial ground served the New Salem Community. In the 1850s, the settlement had a stagecoach stop, post office and the New Salem Academy. The Mays and Swink families of Madison Co., Tennessee were among the early settlers. John Mandeville Mays owned the land where the cemetery was established, sited between Quinn Mountain and the Angelina River. Tradition states that two slaves were the first to be buried here. Two-year-old Mary S. C. Swink died in 1856, and hers is the oldest marked grave. Among the burials are veterans of military conflicts dating to the Civil War. Marble and granite headstones are prominent, and historic plantings include jonquils and crepe myrtle trees. A cemetery association formed in the 1930s. Historic Texas Cemetery-2006