Cemetery

Grave Information

The Killeen Cemetery Interments document contains all persons who are or have been interred at the Killeen City Cemetery. The listings highlighted in yellow are the interments that were moved from Camp Hood to our cemetery in 1942. Red highlights indicate interments that have been disinterred (moved) to another cemetery.

CEMETERY RULES

Printed copies of cemetery rules and regulations are available at the Cemetery Administrative Office. 

City Cemetery Living Tree Program

About

The Living Tree Program provides an opportunity for any person to recognize, memorialize, honor, or celebrate a deceased loved one.

A commemorative tree donation includes the purchase of a 10-gallon crape myrtle and a plaque to be placed under the tree.  Commemorative trees planted are included in the cemetery’s tree maintenance program which includes pruning, watering, mulching, etc.

Planting a Tree

The crape myrtle species and planting site in cemetery easement areas will be determined by the Killeen City Cemetery in consultation with the wishes of the donors.

Planting a tree as a living memorial is the ideal way to celebrate the life of a loved one. Honoring your loved one with a living tree dedication is a gift of respect and renewal for them, for future generations and for the Earth!  Trees and humankind have had a symbiotic relationship since the beginning of time; as we take, we must give back to maintain that vital balance. 

Your Investment

Living Trees serve as permanent living monuments and links to the past.  These monuments grow in importance, visibility, and value as the years pass, while improving our quality of life in countless ways.  In addition, there is no better investment in the future of our City and our world than trees.  Your gift of a tree helps accelerate the cemetery’s own tree planting program, with the goal of continued beautification of the cemetery and creation of a sustainable urban forest.

Living Tree Brochure (PDF)

The City of Killeen is a Tree City USA.

CEMETERY HISTORY

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. In June 1942 with the construction of Camp Hood (Fort Hood), there were 768 bodies disinterred from 15 cemeteries (Maple, Altum Ranch, Brown’s Creek, Bundrant Ranch, Clem, Liverett, New Graham, Old Graham, Norman, Potter, Salem, Shiloh, Sugar Loaf, Warden Place and Young Ranch) and reinterred at the cemetery.

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.