Tow Cemetery History

---

Established around 1850, Tow Cemetery is one of the region’s oldest burial grounds. The earliest marked burial is that of eight-year-old Margaret R. Thorp, who died in 1850—allegedly from a snakebite—highlighting the cemetery’s deep 19th‑century roots.  A prominent 1846 obelisk memorial stands in honor of a Morgan family member buried elsewhere; John F. Morgan, noted as a successful fur hatter, arrived in Tow in 1853.   

The cemetery is linked to the early settlement of Tow Valley, founded in the early 1850s by William and Wilson Tow. Surrounding the cemetery is the legacy of the Bluffton–Tow Saltworks, established around 1852 by the Cowan family—which played a strategic role in supplying salt to the Confederacy before being destroyed by a cyclone in 1871.  John F. Morgan’s fur-hat enterprise and the Tow family’s settlement helped shape the early local economy and community demographics. 

By the 1950s, a local association was formed to care for the cemetery, ensuring its continued upkeep.  In 2001, the Texas Historical Commission recognized Tow Cemetery officially as a Historic Texas Cemetery, marking its importance to state heritage.

Covering approximately 3.24 acres and located about ½ mile west of the Tow post office off FM 2241, the cemetery contains over 500 graves ranging from the mid‑19th century to the present. Memorials include markers of Confederate soldiers, Texas Rangers, pioneer families (Tow, Cowan, Morgan), and veterans from WWI and WWII.  The custodial body still active is the Tow Cemetery Association, made up of local families preserving the site as a testament to the area's heritage.

Tow Cemetery offers a living record of early settlers, local history, and regional evolution—from its saltworks origins, through Civil War and frontier eras, up to present-day stewardship. The site remains a touchstone for understanding the people who built and shaped Tow, Texas.