Nevill's Chapel Cemetery is a medium-sized public cemetery located adjacent Nevill's Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in the Nevill's Chapel community, approximately 2.5 miles north of Mt. Pleasant on Texas Farm Road 1402.
Alexander J. Nevill was a prominent Titus County settler who owned land approximately 2.5 miles north of Mount Pleasant. Nevill was a surveyor and county commissioner who surveyed a large part of Northeast Texas. The Nevill family established a family cemetery on their land in the mid 1800s, and the first person buried there was Napoleon B. Nevill (September 25, 1834 - February, 4 1854).
Nevill's Chapel Missionary Baptist Church was established in 1897 and a building was erected for it adjacent to the family cemetery on Nevill's land. The church and cemetery were named after the Nevill family. The Nevill's Chapel school was once located directly across County Road 3210 that runs along the south edge of the cemetery.
Alexander J. Nevill died February, 28 1906. On December 20, 1906 his widow, Mary, conveyed one acre of land used as a family burial plot to deacons of the Nevill's Chapel Missionary Baptist Church for the sum of one dollar to be used as a cemetery. The land is located on the northwest corner of the A.J. Nevill Headwright Survey out of a parcel of land known as the Billie Pogue place. Nevill's Chapel Missionary Baptist Church deacons at the time were: B.F. Willson, J.C. Wallace, James Porter and John L. Freeman. Mrs. Nevill's signature was witnessed by C.D. Martin and notarized by J.G. Riddle. The City Clerk was A.S. Mitchell.
J.J. Hayes, Sr. also conveyed one acre of land to the deacons on the same day. Mr. Hayes said he purchased a parcel of land from L.A. Cochran on June 26, 1886, to increase the cemetery's size. On February, 20 1923, M.O. (Mattie Oscar) Combs and his wife Tommie Combs, for a fee of one hundred dollars, conveyed a parcel of land they had purchased from J.P. Smith on January 16, 1911. On June 12, 1947, they conveyed an additional 1-1/4 acres of land to the cemetery trustees who were Walter Justiss, Thomas N. Allen, Neely Poag, Hull Horton, J.O. Wallace and J.S. Justiss.
Nevill's Chapel is one of Titus County's prettiest and best-kept cemeteries. It is known for the rare Cedar of Lebanon tree planted near the entrance in 1902 by Jon Herb Reid and his father, along with other plants bought from Black's nursery. Cedars of Lebanon once made up the forest of ancient Phoenicia. This single cedar of Lebanon has adapted unusually well to our East Texas climate, which is harsher than Lebanon's. It remains a focal point of the grounds today.
The complete side bordering County Road 3210 is fenced by brick columns with welded steel panels between them. Wide concrete roads circle inside the cemetery. The grass is clean-cut and many of the cemetery's markers are rich in local history.
The cemetery was awarded an Official Texas Historical Marker. Its inscription states: "The Alexander B. Nevill family came from Tennessee to settle in Titus County in 1838, establishing their family burial ground on one acre west of their new home in the Alexander Nevill headright survey. The earliest burial on this site was that of Napoleon B. Neville, who died in 1854 at age 20. Alexander Nevill (1804-1854) had the earliest birth date of those interred here. Another grave of interest is that of James C. "Sam" Rowland, a Nevill son-in-law, one of the few men officially hanged in Titus County. Mrs. Mary Neville deeded the family plot to the deacons of the adjoining Missionary Baptist Church in 1906. In 1913 the first Decoration Day took place as families gathered to tend their plots and share a celebration of spring. The cemetery grew steadily throughout the 20th century. By 1997, a count revealed 1,113 graves. Of these, 1071 had legible headstones; 42 had unidentifiable markers. Those interred here were primarily families of the Nevill's Chapel community. They include veterans of the American Armed Forces of American and International conflicts. Now covering six acres and cared for by a cemetery association, the Nevill's Chapel Cemetery continues to serve the community, and such traditions as an annual Dedication Day continue to be observed."
The first Decoration Day was held in 1913 or 1914. Families gathered to clean and decorate loved one's graves and lunch was spread beneath the trees. Decoration Day has been a time for caring for the graves and socializing. Decoration Day is currently held the Saturday before the third Sunday in May of each year.
Older parts of the cemetery (Rows E through L and Rows 1 through 19) are kept clean by hoeing and raking all grass and weeds. Graves are mounded as in the old days when slaves throughout the South did this work for plantation owners and other cemetery groups. Portions of the section between Rows A through D are kept in this manner but the balance is leveled and mowed. The middle and lower sections of the cemetery (Rows 1-24 and Rows 1c through 22c) are kept leveled and mowed except for only a few plots.
When the Cemetery Committee opened the lower section, they decided that it would have no curbs installed or trees planted so graves could be leveled and mowed. Notices are posted at cemetery entrances that no curbs will be permitted in other sections of the cemetery without their prior permission.
Charlie Allen started the perpetual care fund in 1969 with a $100 donation. Many, many others were also instrumental in starting the perpetual care program.
The church has grown continuously. After the first building was erected in 1897, four others were built over time to accommodate the growing congregation. The building erected in 1897 was replaced by a second building in 1904. The second building was used from 1904-1947. Next, a concrete block building was erected on the west edge of the cemetery in 1947. Rooms were added to the front of this building in 1953 and it continued to be used until 1984. A brick veneer building was erected immediately west of the block building in 1985 and was used from 1985-1998, when it was replaced by a much larger metal building west of the brick building and facing Texas Farm Road 1402.
The Nevill's Chapel Cemetery is the site of two notorious burials. James C. "Sam" Rowland, a son-in-law of Alexander Nevill, was the first man hung in Titus County. He was tried and found guilty for the murder of a traveling peddler. He was hanged on May 3, 1872 and is buried on Row 15, Space 16.
Malcolm Everett "Mac" Wallace was an associate of former U.S. President Lyndon Baines Johnson, and some suspect Wallace of having a connection to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Malcolm (Mac) Wallace was born in Mount Pleasant in October 15, 1921. Four years later the family moved to Dallas. In 1939 Wallace joined the U.S. Marines. In 1941 Wallace became a student at the University of Texas in Austin, where he became interested in politics and was elected president of the Student Union. He graduated in June, 1947, and taught at Long Island University, the University of Texas, and the University of North Carolina while working on his doctorate at Columbia University. Around that time that Edward Clark introduced Wallace to Lyndon B. Johnson, and in October, 1950, he began working with the United States Department of Agriculture in Texas.
Wallace was convicted of shooting John Kinser, an Austin golf course owner who was having an affair with Josepha Johnson, LBJ's sister, to death on October 22, 1951. On February 1, 1952, Wallace resigned his government job to distance himself from Johnson, and his trial began seventeen days later. The jury found Wallace guilty of "murder with malice afore-thought". Eleven jurors were for the death penalty and the twelfth argued for life imprisonment. Judge Charles O. Betts overruled the jury and announced a sentence of five years imprisonment. He suspended the sentence and Wallace was immediately freed.
Wallace was implicated in several political murders, including the John F. Kennedy assassination, during his association with Johnson. The tangled tale of the Johnson-Wallace association continued until January 7, 1971 when Wallace died from massive head injuries in a traffic accident near Pittsburg, Texas. Some think his vehicle was tampered with to make sure that he couldn't tell what he knew.
In May 1998 Walt Brown called a Dallas press conference to discuss a previously unidentified fingerprint found in the Texas Book Depository "sniper's nest". Brown claimed that this fingerprint had now been identified as belonging to Wallace. In 2003 Barr McClellan published Blood, Money & Power: How LBJ Killed JFK. McClellan argues in his book that Lyndon B. Johnson and Edward Clark were involved in the John F. Kennedy assassination planning and cover-up, and also named Wallace as one of the assassins.
DRIVING DIRECTIONS FROM THE TITUS COUNTY COURTHOUSE:
Drive 1.5 miles north on North Jefferson Street (U.S. Highway 271 Business) to its intersection with Burton Road (the Interstate 30 south service road). Turn right (east) on Burton Road and continue 0.4 mile to the intersection of Texas Farm Road 1402 (Harts Bluff Road). Turn left (north) on FM 1402 at the stop sign and cross Interstate 30. Drive 1 mile to the intersection County Road 3210. Turn right (east). The cemetery is about 0.2 miles on the left, just before the intersection of County Road 3220 and County Road 3205.
