Local legend says the cemetery was begun about 1851, when a child in a passing wagon train died and was buried at the site. The first documented burial was that of Amy A. Marr in 1872. Her gravestone is the oldest readable stone in the cemetery. The pioneer with the earliest readable birth date on her headstone is Mrs. E. B. Torian, born in Halifax County, Virginia, on August 6, 1796 and buried on March 27, 1886. Whites Chapel cemetery and church were both named for the Reverend Lewis M. White (c. 1837-1917), a circuit-riding Methodist preacher who served the Grapevine circuit from 1873 to 1876.
On February 13, 1959, Texas Governor Price Daniel patented the last tract of land to the Whites Chapel Cemetery Association and its trustees, under the provisions of an act approved by the legislature on June 19, 1939, amending the law of land which had never before been formally deeded as a cemetery. It was stated that this land could never again be used as anything else but a cemetery. A survey was completed in December of 2006 and shows the Cemetery Association owns 2.2454 acres.
In 1976 the Colleyville 4-H Club erected a small granite tombstone to commemorate the first burial in the cemetery. A young girl, who was traveling through the area in a wagon train died, and is buried on location.
There are several government furnished veterans’ monuments in place and old residents indicate that many other veterans lie buried under privately produced markers. Paupers were also buried here when they could not afford a plot, and most are unmarked.
The Whites Chapel Cemetery Association was formally incorporated as a non-profit organization on April 1, 1982 under section 501(c)(13) of the tax code. The cemetery was honored with a Texas Historical Marker in a dedication service on October 21, 2001. It was placed along the cemetery’s western boundary and is invaluable in helping to interpret Southlake’s past to the thousands of its residents who have recently moved here from other communities both inside and outside Texas. In 2009 a black wrought iron fence with Austin white stone columns and an arched entryway was added. Five park benches were installed and placed throughout the cemetery grounds with the help of Boy Scouts of America Troop 292.
Vandalism of 1980
Old Newspaper Articles
