Cemeteries of Hood County
Colony Cemetery
4 miles west of Granbury on US 377
Residents of the community known as The Colony came to Hood County
with their white southern owners as early as the 1850s. After
emancipation they began to settle in this area, and many acquired
land under a state law which provided settlers with the opportunity
to live on land for as many as seven years before securing a patent
for the property. "Doc" Foster and Simon and Hettie Hightower were
such landowners. The Colony grew rapidly in the last years of the
nineteenth century. A church called Mt. Zion, which also served as a
temporary school was established. The earliest marked grave in The
Colony Cemetery is that of Mary Edwards, who died in 1876. The
Colony residents played important roles in the development of Hood
County. They helped clear land for the courthouse site, executed
their masonry skills on the buildings on the Granbury square, and
worked on area farms. Church fundraising events and celebrations
such as Juneteenth, the celebration of Texas' notification of the
end of slavery, were an important part of the colony's community
life. By the end of the Depression era of the 1930s, most of the
adult residents had left The Colony for nearby towns, and many of
the community's youth left the area completely, though they often
chose to be returned to The Colony Cemetery for burial. The last
three residents of The Colony left in the 1940s. The Colony Cemetery
is an important chronicle of the history of Hood County and
particularly of the generation of African Americans who were born in
slavery and who forged new lives after emancipation, paving the road
of freedom for their descendants.