Through the years, this cemetery has been known as New Bethel Cemetery, Bennett-McCutcheon Cemetery, Bennett-Tolleson Cemetery, Pioneer Cemetery, Sweet Home Cemetery and Sweet Home City Cemetery. It is now named for the family on whose land the cemetery was created.

The cemetery was founded on the homestead of Stephen and Mary Breazeal Bennett, who migrated from Alabama to the Republic of Texas in 1840/41. The first burial probably occurred in January, 1846 with the death of the Bennetts' oldest daughter Sarah. Started as a family graveyard for the large Bennett family, over time it became the final resting place for friends and neighbors of the Bennetts and eventually a community cemetery for the village of Sweet Home. The oldest marked graves are apparently those of Lucy L. Dyer (1830- 1873) and William M. McMurrey (1806-1873).

Buried here are a number of the very earliest American settlers of Lavaca County. These people played important roles in settling and building Lavaca County and south Texas. Some of the storied cattlemen and cowboys of Texas who drove longhorns to Kansas and points further north before and after the Civil War are buried here and/or have family members interred here. Soldiers from the War of 1812, the Civil War and World War II as well as some of the earliest Czech and German immigrants to the Sweet Home area rest here.

A 1981 headstone count located 84 stone markers. A later recount, along with new evidence found, indicated at least 12 additional burials. Recently, we have learned that even these later figures are incomplete. The exact number of burials will probably never be known to us. It is almost certain that there are many unmarked graves in the graveyard. Some headstones are known to have been removed and relocated to other cemeteries by descendants of the deceased.

The front section of the cemetery was voluntarily maintained for many years by Mr. & Mrs. Frank Kunetka of Sweet Home. The back portion of the 2 1/2 acres was untended for many years and waist-high grass, weeds and poison ivy were the norm. Year-round maintenance of the entire cemetery was begun by The Friends organization in 1999. The funding for this maintenance is entirely dependent upon donations. All donations are acknowledged and are very much appreciated.

The Friends of Bennett Cemetery, Inc., a nonprofit corporation chartered by the State of Texas, is managed by a seven-member Board of Directors, all of whom have ancestors buried here and have a continuing interest in preserving and restoring the cemetery. We hope, over time, to be able to right and restore the many fallen and broken monuments. We have plotted and mapped the cemetery and are now compiling short biographies of persons known to be interred here.

We solicit any information you may be able to provide us concerning persons buried here or the history of the cemetery or of the community of Sweet Home. We will gladly furnish information that we have on those buried here. We publish a newsletter several times each year and will be happy to add your name to our address list.

To contact the Friends or have your name added to our mailing list, please write:

The Friends of Bennett Cemetery, Inc.
c/o Gay. Bethel
14264 Coral Harbor Ct., Dallas, Texas 75234

or call:
972-620-0624
or e-mail:
friends@newtexas.com

Donations and bequests are tax deductible.

We are recognized by the I.R.S. as a Section 501 (c) (3) organization

For the benefit of genealogists and family historians, some of the surnames shown above are the maiden names of married women Similarly, when known that a woman was married more than once, we have shown the surnames of her several husbands