Old Columbia Cemetery

The land that holds the graves also held a church. Bethel Presbyterian was organized in 1840 by the Rev. William Y. Allen with ten members, after Hugh Wilson, remembered as the father of Texas Presbyterianism, preached its first sermon. The congregation is said to have met first in a former capitol building. It dedicated a new church in Columbia in 1852 and in the 1880s moved to East Columbia, where a storm in 1932 destroyed the building. The cemetery and the church both grew from Bell family land.

What the plaque says

Old Columbia Cemetery Site given by Josiah H. Bell family-- out of their grant, the first deeded to one of "Old 300" in colony of Stephen F. Austin. Has graves of many heroes of Texas Revolution of 1836. Deeded in 1852 to Bethel Presbyterian Church; since 1933 managed by Columbia Cemetery Association. (1966)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Varner-Hogg Plantation State Historic Site — 1.6 mi
  A Brazos sugar plantation built by enslaved people for the Patton family, later leased convict labor and Hogg family oil, now told through Rachel Patton and Sarah Ford.
• Levi Jordan Plantation State Historic Site — 9.9 mi
  A sugar and cotton plantation on the San Bernard River whose enslaved builders and their descendants left one of the best-preserved African American archeological sites in Texas.
• Brazos Bend State Park — 17 mi
  Oak and pecan bottomland, lakes and alligators on the Brazos River 45 miles from downtown Houston, with the museum's George Observatory in the woods.
• Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge — 21 mi
  Coastal prairie, salt marsh and bays between Freeport and Christmas Bay, where an auto tour along Big Slough passes wintering geese, ducks and wading birds in the tens of thousands.

More markers nearby

• George Rounds — steps away
• Samuel Tubbs Angier, M.D. — steps away
• Ammon Underwood — steps away
• Josiah H. Bell — steps away