Coolidge, Limestone County
Established in 1878, this burial ground served the former community of Armour. The cemetery is located on property deeded by community founder, James Armour (d. 1896), for school, church and burial purposes. James Armour was born in 1825 in Jackson County, Georgia, and was a landowner, community and church leader, and Civil War veteran. Armour married Narita Jane Kennedy (d. 1902) in 1849; the couple had ten children. In 1882, James Armour laid out the community of Sandy Creek, which later bore his name. By 1884, the settlement, one of the earliest in northern Limestone County, had two churches, a school district and two gristmills. The Armour community declined quickly after 1903, when the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railroad established a new town, Coolidge, along tracks set one mile north of here. Businesses and other establishments, including the Sandy Creek Baptist Church (now First Baptist Church of Coolidge), moved to the new community. The oldest marked graves here are for Annie Lou Hooper and her husband, James E. Hooper, who both died in 1878. Also interred are community leaders, area pioneers and veterans of military conflicts dating to the Civil War. Cemetery features include vertical stones, curbing and fraternal monuments. The cemetery is divided into four sections: Old Armour, New Armour, The Norwegian Cemetery and the Catholic Cemetery, which is known locally as the Mexican Cemetery. The Coolidge Cemetery Association maintains the first three sections, while descendants care for the Catholic Cemetery. Today, Armour Cemetery is the last remaining vestige of the historic Armour community, and continues to serve descendants of this area's early pioneers. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2007