Prairie Grove Cemetery

This site recalls a historic African American church, school and cemetery in Alief. Only a few African Americans lived in the area in the nineteenth century, working as farm laborers or tenant farmers. More families came in the early twentieth century, including the David and Parthenia Outley family from Fort Bend by 1910. S.B. (Shorter) Burleson, Eddie and Will Garmond, and others arrived soon after. Oral tradition tells that Prairie Grove Missionary Baptist Church first met in the Burleson home; Mamie Burleson was instrumental in naming the church. In October 1910, L.P. Scarborough sold this land to church trustees S.B. Burleson and Will and Eddie Garmond, in 1921-22, the congregation built a white frame sanctuary that also served as a schoolhouse from 1927 to 1937. The congregation dwindled in the 1940s, and the building was later razed. Early black families used other area cemeteries before establishing this burial ground adjacent to the church. About fifty known graves have been surveyed on the 1.35 acre property, along with several unmarked graves. The earliest known burials are those of Melissa Outley (1940), Leo Bryant, Jr. (1941), Lillian Garmond Jackson (1942) and Lucy Truitt (1943). Unmarked graves, however, may predate these. Pioneer families, Freemasons and military veterans from World War II and the Vietnam Conflict are buried here. Descendants of church founders formed Prairie Grove Cemetery Association in 1967 to maintain and preserve the burial ground. The once rural cemetery is still in use by descendants of early families and others. Historic Texas Cemetery – 2006

Prairie Grove Cemetery is a historical marker in Houston, Harris County, dedicated in 2007. It is one of 422 historical markers documented in Harris County in the Texas Historical Commission Atlas, among 849 historic sites cataloged across the county.

The site sits at 29.6838, -95.6227 near Houston. The nearest cataloged historic site is Alief Cemetery (historical marker), about 1.7 miles away. Others within a short drive include Dairy (Alief), Forest Park-Westheimer, and Gray Lodge No. 329, A. F. & A. M..

This record corresponds to Texas Historical Commission Atlas #5507014033. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.