Settlers began arriving in this area in increased numbers after the Civil War with the opening of rail lines and the cessation of indian conflicts. Many of the pioneers are interred here. The first burials, in the late 1870s, were for Kentucky native G.W. Simmons and for an infant of W.B. and Sarah Jane (Herndon) Dooley. Land for the cemetery was later deeded by Simmons' sister Margaret and her husband, G.W. Burnett. The early Briar Creek School was located on adjacent land by the 1880s, but only the cemetery remains as a reminder of the area's earliest settlers. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986.