Killeen Cemetery History (Find a Grave Cemetery ID 2907)

https://www.killeentexas.gov/151/Killeen-City-Cemetery

Even though Bell County had settlers as early as 1835, the area around Killeen still had Comanche Indians in 1859. The City of Killeen started with the coming of the railroad in 1882. Before Killeen was formed many small towns were in the area, including Sugar Loaf and Palo Alto, whose citizens moved to the new town of Killeen.

The Killeen City Cemetery had a long history of use before the City of Killeen assumed its care. It began in 1856 as a family cemetery on the Fleming family farm. In the 1830s, William Washington and Elizabeth Putnam Fleming and their five children along with two other of William's siblings and their families began moving west from Georgia to Arkansas. In the 1840s, William Washington and Elizabeth Putnam Fleming and their growing family moved to Williamson County, Texas. In 1854, the family relocated to Bell County near the future site of Killeen on the Geo W Fleming survey. The first interment was J. W Fleming in May 1856. Other Fleming family interments were made in 1858, 1859 and in 1867. In 1867, the Fleming family began allowing the interment of other settlers from the community on their land thus beginning a community cemetery.

In 1899, a handbill about a United Thanksgiving celebration listed the meal being provided by the cemetery association. An early picture from around 1900 showed the cemetery as an overgrown area of tombstones about five miles out in the country. The grounds were originally laid out with a circular drive in the Old Section B, which is where the first burials occurred. This drive was abandoned and the area used for burials, which accounts for the irregular rows currently in the old sections of the cemetery.

Many of the pioneers buried here came from Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee and some of their tombstones proudly list their heritage. There are some historical and notable burials at the cemetery - (Jane and John Riggs who were murdered by Comanche Indians during the last Indian raid in Bell County), as well as WWII hero CPT Robert M. Gray as well as Veterans of the Confederate States of America, Battle of San Jacinto Veteran Jas M. Harbour, War of 1812 Veteran Thomas Kinsey and other veterans of war. 

The City of Killeen took over the cemetery in 1950. In addition to the many historic graves, the cemetery now serves as the final resting place to 9,500.

Update in 2026:

On January 14, 1942, the United States Army announced plans for the establishment of Camp Hood (Fort Hood) as a "tank destroyer tactical and firing center" near Killeen, Texas. For several weeks beginning in early July 1942, 767 gravesites were reinterred at Killeen City Cemetery from the following cemeteries.

Altum's Ranch

Brown's Creek

Bundrant Ranch

Clem

Liberty Hill

Liverett

Maple

New Graham

Norman

Old Graham

Potter

Salem

Shiloh

Sugar Loaf

Warden Place 

Young Ranch