Mt. Pilgrim Cemetery

ALSO KNOWN AS THE McCOLLOUGH CEMETERY

FAYETTEVILLE, FAYETTE COUNTY, TEXAS

This cemetery is located off FM 159 next to the Cedar of Lebanon Church. This church, the Mt. Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church and one other were all African-American churches established between Fayetteville and Rek Hill. According to information in the cemetery files of the Fayette Heritage Museum and Archives, Offie McCollough purchased 1.55 acres from Mary Novosad on January 6, 1945. The frontage along FM 159 was sold to the Cedar of Lebanon Church, leaving 1.16 acres for the cemetery. Offie McCollough passed away on May 30, 1948 and is the first known burial in the cemetery.

Death certificates for Jimmie Jefferson, Lena McDonald, Jesse Noise, and Mathilda Oakes list their place of burial as the McCollough Cemetery. Several others', including Offie McCollough's, list burial place as Fayetteville Cemetery.

Joe Cole inventoried the cemetery, probably in the 1950s. Kathy Carter and Helen Muras visited this cemetery on October 16, 1988 and, though it was badly overgrown, their inventory included nineteen marked graves and at least eleven unidentified graves. Many of the unidentified graves had illegible funeral home markers. At that time there was a large pile of trash and limbs in the center of the cemetery. For a June 13, 2004 inventory, none of the earlier graves were visible. There was a small cleaned area in which six markers were found, five of which were for burials since the last inventory. The property was fenced on both sides and in the back, but the back and sides were full of brush and trees.

Please e-mail Rox Ann if you can contribute additions or corrections. Parents names in notes section come from death certificates.

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