Rochelle Cemetery

Rochelle went by several names. Early ones honored county residents, Crewville and Crothers among them, and the name Rochelle, chosen by a French settler from La Rochelle, was accepted when a post office opened in 1879. In the mid-1890s it was a stockraising community of about thirty people. The railroads made it grow: the Fort Worth and Rio Grande in 1903 and the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe in 1912. By 1914 Rochelle had 700 residents, three churches, two gins, a newspaper, a bank and a hotel. The Santa Fe pulled its tracks in 1959.

What the plaque says

Rochelle Cemetery E.E. Willoughby (1853-1935), a cattleman from Tarrant County, moved to Rochelle (then about 1.5 mi. SW) in 1883. He acquired land here in 1886 along the Brady-San Saba Road. In 1889 he donated two acres near this site for the community's school and church building, moved here from its original 1886 site about one mile south. When Willoughby's 19-month-old son Ernest Eckie died in 1894, he buried the infant near the school. In 1896, Willoughby deeded one acre here as the Rochelle Cemetery. A new school was built here in 1899. The community and schoolhouse were moved in 1903 about 2 miles northwest to the new Fort Worth & Rio Grande Railroad. This cemetery continued to serve the new community, first named Crothers but soon renamed Rochelle. The tombstones here of the Rev. and Mrs. C.W. Jones indicate that she died in Crothers (1906) and he died in Rochelle (1910), though they both died at their home in the same town. Willoughby deeded another acre to this cemetery in 1910, but he was ultimately buried in Brady at Live Oak Cemetery. The rock fence here was built in 1935, and four more acres were purchased in 1943. The cemetery contains almost 500 graves, of which 105 are unmarked. An association founded in 1972 cares for the grounds. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Rochelle Depot — 1.5 mi
• Soldier's Waterhole — 3.6 mi
• Curtis Airfield — 8.1 mi
• W. H. (Uncle Billy) Gibbons — 10 mi