Griffin-Methodist Cemetery

The graveyard is still looked after by a board. A local cemetery board runs Cooke Cemetery today, and a perpetual care fund has paid for fencing, for clearing overgrown ground and for a new flagpole, dedicated on Memorial Day, May 26, 2025, with a prayer from Liberty Fire Department chaplain John Thomas. Bluebonnet News reported that the state named it a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2018 and that a new section had recently opened for burials. THC's location notes add that a separate Historic Texas Cemetery marker stands beside this one.

What the plaque says

Griffin-Methodist Cemetery Jackson Hawkins Griffin (1818-1864) came to Liberty in 1835. A member of the Liberty Volunteers during the Texas Revolution, he participated in the Siege of Bexar. His home near this site was often used as a boarding house for families new to the area. Jesse Daniel Lum (1775-1846) and his son, Jesse Daniel Lum, Jr. (1822-1900), rented rooms in Griffin's home soon after they arrived here from Louisiana in 1843. When the elder Lum died in 1846, Griffin provided space on his land for use as a burial site. From that time, the plot of land was known locally as Griffin Cemetery. Jackson Griffin enlisted in the Confederate Army in 1862 and was killed in the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee, in 1864. His heirs sold his land to Dr. James P. Cooke (1836-1892), who in turn donated the cemetery property to the Liberty Methodist Church in 1881. Dr. Cooke was interred here in 1892, and the burial ground is also known as Cooke Memorial Cemetery. The Methodist church maintained the graveyard as a private burial ground until 1981, when a restoration program was undertaken which reopened the cemetery to public use. This historic cemetery serves as a reminder of Liberty's past. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center — 2.6 mi
  A state archives and museum north of Liberty with an exhibit on Southeast Texas history and a campus of historic buildings, including an 1848 house and an 1898 church.
• San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site — 29 mi
  The 1,200 acres of coastal prairie and marsh where the Texas Revolution ended in eighteen minutes, and the 567-foot shaft of fossil-studded limestone that has stood over them since 1939.

More markers nearby

• Yettie Kersting — 1.2 mi
• Edward Thomas Branch — 1.3 mi
• Liberty Methodist Church — 1.4 mi
• Mexican Hill — 1.4 mi