Old Celina Cemetery

Celina's name came from Tennessee. The Handbook of Texas says John T. Mulkey named the town for his native Celina, Tennessee, and by 1884 it had a school, a Methodist church, a cotton gin, a gristmill and several general stores. Then it shrank to about fifty people by 1892. When the St. Louis, San Francisco and Texas Railway arrived in 1902, the town moved a mile north to meet it. Celina incorporated in 1907, and in 1915 it had the first road in Collin County built only for automobiles, the Celina Pike. The old townsite kept its graves.

What the plaque says

Old Celina Cemetery The town of Celina, settled by natives of Celina, Tennessee, was founded near this site in 1870. The oldest grave here is that of a child who died in 1884. W.J. Bounds (1830-1886) donated the land as a community cemetery after the death of Elizabeth McWhorter on Feb. 298, 1885. In 1900 residents of Celina began to relocate their homes and businesses along the railroad (2.5 mi. ne). By 1910 only this burial ground remained at the original townsite. A cemetery association was formed in 1918. Several more acres were later added to the cemetery, which contains about 600 graves. (1976)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary — 15 mi
  A 289-acre sanctuary in McKinney that Bessie Heard founded at the age of 80, with five habitats, a 50-acre wetland and 6.5 miles of trails.
• Denton County Courthouse-on-the-Square — 20 mi
  An 1896 courthouse by W. C. Dodson in Denton limestone, pink granite and two sandstones, restored in 2004, now a free county museum on a lawn holding the grave of John B. Denton.
• Great Hanging Memorial — 29 mi
  Two granite monuments in a Gainesville park, dedicated in 2014, for the Cooke County men the Confederate militia hanged in October 1862 on suspicion of Unionism.

More markers nearby

• Prosper — 4.8 mi
• Lee Lodge No. 435, A.F. & A.M. — 4.8 mi
• Prosper United Methodist Church — 4.8 mi
• Alla School — 4.8 mi