In 1871, Jesse Van donated land for a community cemetery for Cow Creek residents. The community included a school and the Cow Creek Methodist and Live Oak Baptist Churches. The first recorded burial was on March 15, 1874 for the infant daughter of J. P. and Indiane Martin. Earlier burials are possible, especially among 65 unidentified graves. The most historically significant burial was in 1895 for William Carroll Crawford, last surviving signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. In 1936, the state of Texas reinterred his remains in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin. The cow creek cemetery association formed in 1971 to preserve this reminder of a rural settlement and its stories of the past.