Lavon, Collin County, Texas

Cemeteries of Texas Coordinator: Dolores I. Bishop

Information provided by the State of Texas Atlas Site Location: on SH 78, about 2 miles north of Lavon Marker : Collin county pioneer Abner Thompson came to this area about 1850 and settled on land that was originally part of the Silvester Williams Survey, deeding a portion of it to be used as a cemetery. The first burial, that of Thompson himself, took place in 1852. His grave is marked with two large square stones which have deteriorated through time and have become nearly illegible. Tall posts of Bois d'Arc, which mark the nearby grave of one of Thompson's employees, have stood the effects of weathering for more than one hundred years. Also buried here are Miles and Emily J. Graves who, in 1862, donated over an acre of land to the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, which was organized five years earlier. When the congregation divided in the early 1880s, that land was given to the Thompson Cemetery, which was enlarged several more times in later years. A Memorial Day service has been held at the Thompson Cemetery each year since the early 1950s, bringing together people from the nearby communities of Lavon and Copeville. There are over 800 graves here which are given perpetual care by the Thompson Cemetery Association. (1983)