Old Palestine Cemetery
Alto vicinity, Cherokee County, Texas
Cemeteries of Texas Coordinator: Dolores I. Bishop

Information provided by the State of Texas Atlas Site

Location:
6 miles east of Alto on SH 21 

Marker : 
Henry and Helena (Dill) Berryman deeded four acres of land 
at this site to trustees of the old Palestine Baptist Church in 
1853. Seven years later Helena, by then a widow, gave an additional
two acres on which a schoolhouse and community graveyard already 
were in existence. Many early graves are undocumented, but records 
indicate stones once marked interments that occurred as early as 1861. 
Among the pioneer settlers interred here are James and Martha Boyd, 
their son Benjamin, daughter Martha Donegan, and infant granddaughter 
Lara Donegan, all of whom died in 1862. Enlarged in later years with 
additional land donations, the cemetery stands as a reminder of the area's pioneer heritage. (2001)