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 Wyatt Chapel Community Cemetery Posted by:  Raven
N 30° 06.173 W 095° 59.224
15R E 212136 N 3333951
A marker by the Wyatt Chapel Community Cemetery, just across from Prairie View A&M University. The cemetery used to be a burial site for the slaves of two nearby plantations and was still in use until the 1950's.
Waymark Code: WMN75D
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 01/09/2015
Views: 6
Wyatt Chapel Cemetery is an old abandoned cemetery located just across from Prairie View A&M University. Originally the burial site of slaves from two nearby plantation, it has recently been explored in detail by Rice University students to map out and fully document the history and culture of the area. An interesting PDF article about this research and its historical discoveries can be found here: ( visit link)
Marker Number: 8115
Marker Text:
This cemetery is located on land that was originally part of Jared E. Kirby's Alta Vista Plantation. According to oral tradition, the Kirby family set aside this land as a burial site for their slaves, as well as slaves from nearby Liendo Plantation, owned by Kirby's cousin, Leonard Waller Croce. The numerous unmarked graves here are believed to date to the Antebellum period, when most slaves would not have had the resources to erect lasting grave markers.
The cemetery continued to be used by African Americans after the Civil War ands after Kirby's widow, Helen Marr Swearingen Kirby, deeded the plantation to the state in 1876 for the Alta Vista College for Colored Youth (now Prairie View A&M University). Later, the cemetery became associated with and named for Wyatt Chapel, a nearby African American church.
The oldest marked grave is that of MAttie (Wyatt) Wells (d. 1882), the daughter of a former slave. Area religious leaders, veterans of World Wars I and II, and former slaves and their descendants are also buried here. Used until the 1950s, the cemetery remains a tangible reminder of African Americans' historic presence in this area.
(1992)
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Visit Instructions:
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