COTTAGE HILL CEMETERY - WESTON
FM2478 and CR170
Latitude 33 18 37N
Longitude 96 42 47W
Historical marker, 1992.
COTTAGE HILL
METHODIST CHURCH AND CEMETERY
COTTAGE HILL METHODIST CHURCH AND CEMETERY
ACCORDING TO LOCAL TRADITION THIS METHODIST CHURCH
TRACES ITS ORIGIN TO PIONEER RELIGIOUS GATHERINGS ORGA-
NIZED BY THE REV. JOHN CULWELL AND HELD IN THE HOME
OF HIS BROTHER, ANDREW J. CULWELL, ABOUT 1846, AND TO THE
ESTABLISHMENT OF METHODIST CAMPGROUND MEETINGS
HELD AT NEARBY HONEY CREEK ABOUT 1848. THE FIRST DOCU-
MENTARY MENTION OF COTTAGE HILL METHODIST CHURCH IS
CONTAINED IN THE MINUTES OF THE TRINITY CONFERENCE
HELD IN PLANO IN 1874. A CHURCH STRUCTURE WAS BUILT ON
LAND DONATED BY F. F. MORRILL AT THIS SITE IN 1881; H. H.
SULLIVAN SERVED AS PASTOR.
THE SIZABLE NUMBER OF EARLY HEADSTONES BEARING THE
NAME CULWELL AND THE MANY UNMARKED GRAVES SUR-
ROUNDING THE GRAVESITE OF MARTHA CULWELL (D. 1870), THE
CEMETERY’S EARLIEST RECORDED INTERMENT, SUGGESTS THAT
THE COTTAGE HILL CEMETERY BEGAN AS A FAMILY CERE-
TERY. ALTHOUGH LOCATED ADJACENT TO EACH OTHER AND
BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN CONNECTED AS PART OF LANDS
DEEDED TO THE COTTAGE HILL CHURCH DURING THE 1880S
AND 1890S, THE CHURCH AND CEMETERY HAVE NOT BEEN
FORMALLY ASSOCIATED SINCE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE
COTTAGE HILL CEMETERY ASSOCIATION IN 1890.
THE CHURCH STRUCTURE, RENOVATED IN 1946, CONTINUES
TO SERVE THE COTTAGE HILL METHODIST CHURCH.
COTTAGE HILL CEMETERY
Historical marker application.
...In 1842 William Culwell had moved from Arkansas to present day Collin County
and settled west of the present day town of Weston. He was soon followed by his
four brothers, Hezekiah, Thomas, John and Andrew. John Culwell organized several
Methodist churches in the North Texas area after 1842. The brothers patented
land in the area and the present day church and cemetery are on the Thomas
Culwell survey. Since 31 members of the Culwell families lie buried in the
cemetery and the oldest marked graves are those of the family, the supposition
arises that the cemetery began as a Culwell family burying ground....
the cemetery is located on the Thomas Culwell Survey. Records of the early
burials are non-existent.... There are many unmarked graves in the original part
of the cemetery, just north and west of the church....
Eleven member of the Biggs family are buried here. The best known member of the
family is the Reverend Joab Harrell Biggs (1812-1891). He had come to Texas with
the Culwell family in 1842. He was a native of North Carolina but was living in
Mississippi when he was converted in the Methodist camp meeting and joined the
Mississippi Conference. From Mississippi he moved to Arkansas where he met the
Culwell family with whom he came to Texas. He patented 320 acres of land as a
member of the Peter’s Colony about five or six miles northwest of the resent
church and cemetery.... He was a Methodist circuit rider preacher who rode a
circuit of around three hundred miles in North Texas, headquartered in Bonham,
Fannin County at one time.... He received about sixty dollars a year for his
preaching....
Grave stones are here for other prominent people of the community such as Dr.
Moses Hubbard (1837-1906) and Mrs. Hubbard (1843-1914), and their daughter Alla
Hubbard Spencer (1860-1899). Dr. Hubbard will long be remembered for his gifts
to the school children of western Collin County. After the untimely death of his
daughter Alla, he established a school and endowed it with about 1000 acres of
rich farm land, reputed to be the only endowed common school district in Texas.
The school, the Alla Hubbard School,... became a part of the Celina Independent
School District in 1957 and enjoys the profits from the thousand acres today....
Arriving in the community the same year (1866) that Dr. Hubbard came was a newly
wed couple, Joseph R. Darnall and his wife, Mary Ellen. He was an ordained
minister of the Christian Church and preached throughout the area as well as
being a farmer of some 800 acres of land.... When the Reverend Darnall died in
1909 he was buried in the cemetery on land which he had sold to the cemetery in
1895. Nine members of the family are buried in the cemetery....
Ten members of the pioneer W. E. Mallone family lie here. The family moved from
Missouri in 1859. William E. (Uncle Billy) was well-known in the area because he
was a lay preacher. He blew the cow horn announcing the beginning of the
sessions of the camp meetings.
Ten members of the Pafford family are buried here in the cemetery. The Paffords
came from West Virginia in 1872. J. W. Pafford had served in the Civil War under
Stonewall Jackson....
F. F. Morrill came to community in 1853 from Tennessee. He married Nancy Jane
Stone, granddaughter of Joseph Russell, who had come from Missouri in 1845. They
were married in 1856. She was also the stepdaughter of Samuel P. Brown, who
attended the Quarterly Conference in 1848 of Honey Creek Campground Church....
Nine member of the Morrill family are buried here.
Dr. David Powell headrighted land, practiced medicine and was one of the leaders
in establishing the Cemetery Association. He came for Missouri in 1859. he was
the father-in-law of Uncle Billy Mallone.
The Stambaugh family – Jacob R. and Mary Ann Hopkins Stambaugh, arrived in
December, 1858 from Illinois. They settled about three miles northwest of the
present cemetery and church. A grandson, J. Lee Stambaugh and his wife, wrote a
book A History of Collin County, Texas, published in 1958. Seventeen members of
the family are buried in the cemetery.
The Reverend John S. Noble was born on May 17, 1813 and entered the ministry in
1844. In 1848 he was ordained as both a deacon and an elder and came to the
Indian Territory as a missionary. In 1853 he moved to Collin County and settled
on a farm two miles south of the present Cottage Hill Church. His home was a
“preaching place.” He also preached in other churches in Collin, Denton, and
Parker counties. He represented the Honey Creek Church in 1874. In 1881 he was
present for the dedication of the Cottage Hill church. He died at Pilot Point on
May 25, 1886. He is buried in the now abandoned Noble Cemetery on the Noble farm
in the Cottage Hill community....
Today there are more than two thousand graves in the cemetery.
Cottage Hill
Cottage
Hill Methodist Church
CEMETERY INDEX
Recommended
citation:
Cottage Hill Cemetery - Weston,
"CEMETERIES
OF COLLIN COUNTY." Collin County, Texas History and Genealogy Webpage by
Genealogy Friends of Plano Libraries, Inc., <http://www.geocities/genfriendsghl>
[Accessed Fri February 13, 2004 ].
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