Morton Cemetery

Morton Cemetery, located in the 300 block of North Second Street in Richmond, Fort Bend County, is the resting place of Mirabeau B. Lamar, Jane Long, and other Texas pioneers. The site, which was part of a Mexican land grant received by William Morton, was first used as a cemetery in 1825, when Morton buried Robert Gelaspie (or Gillespie), a fellow Mason, there. He later built Gelaspie a brick tomb, which is believed to be the first Masonic landmark erected in Texas. After Morton died in 1833 his widow sold the land to Robert Eden Handy and William Lusk, promoters of the townsite of Richmond. In 1854 Michael DeChaumes acquired the burial ground, which became known as DeChaumes Cemetery. The site came to be called the Morton Cemetery after the 1890s, when it was acquired by the Morton Lodge No. 72 of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. In the early 1940s the cemetery became the property of the Richmond Cemetery Association, which was later renamed the Morton Cemetery Association.