History of Brinlee Cemetery
We hope you enjoy this brief historical account of Brinlee Cemetery.
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Brinlee Cemetery
Brinlee Cemetery in Collin County is hidden in an agricultural area about four miles east of Melissa, near the end of CR 473 and is surrounded by farm land and trees, near the Brinlee Branch of Sister Grove Creek. It contains about seventy graves.
The earliest marked grave is that of a child, J. C. Osburn, buried in 1874. A child of Hiram Brinlee, Collin A. Brinlee, is listed in the 1850 U. S. Census Mortality Schedule as dying in October of 1849, so the cemetery was probably in use that far back. It is said that the Brinlee slaves were buried here.
Three of the earliest residents of Collin County are buried in the Brinlee Cemetery-Hiram Brinlee, Josiah Nichols, and his wife Elizabeth Jane Fitzhugh Nichols. The Brinlees buried in this cemetery include: Hiram Brinlee, David Francis Brinlee, Hiram C. Brinlee, Charles D. Brinlee, Nancy Elizabeth Brinlee and William Brinlee. Also buried here are daughter Sarah B. Anderson and son-in-law Robert B. Sims and probably son Collin A. Brinlee.
A break-down of the years of burials shows that most of the burials were in the 1880s and 1890s. Fourteen of the seventy listed burials were for little children. A look at the obituaries of the people buried here shows that most of them died from accidents - accidental shootings, falling off a horse, burns - evidence of how hard life was for the early pioneers.
There are veterans of several wars buried in the Brinlee cemetery. Josiah Nichols was a veteran of two wars, the Mexican and Civil. Also serving in the Civil War were David Brinlee, Hiram C. Brinlee, A. A. Davis, and Robert Sims. Roy Cravens was a veteran of World War I and Clifford Wright was a veteran of World War II.
From Collin County, Texas History - Brinlee Cemetery, www.collincountyhistory.com/brinlee.html