According to local legend, this graveyard originated when an unknown cowboy was buried near this site with the permission of landowner James Massay, who designated the spot as a community cemetery. Massay also gave the land for a railroad right-of-way along which the town of Clinton was built. The earliest marked grave in the cemetery is that of R. J. McAdams (1836-1859), wife of J. E. McAdams. The village was named Massayville in 1899, but was later renamed Clinton for Charles S. Clinton, an official of the Cotton Belt Railway. More than 500 graves in this cemetery and a few scattered homes in the vicinity were all that remained of the Clinton community in 1998. The cemetery is a record of the pioneers of Hunt County. (1998)