Soon after the Terrell State Hospital opened in July 1885, a portion of the property was set aside for burial of patients who died while hospitalized. The first burial here occurred Oct. 22, 1885. The oldest gravestone is dated Jan. 19, 1888, but most of the graves are unmarked. A fence separates the Jewish section of the cemetery. Some graves date from a smallpox epidemic in 1907. During the 1950s and 1960s, there were 30 to 35 burials a year, but the number gradually declined.