Journal of History and Culture Journal of History and Culture

j o u r n a l o f h i s t o r y a n d c u l t u r e
what is now Waller County 13 . After his death, his son Leonard W. Groce purchased “that part of the Liendo survey
which lay north and west of Pond Creek”. In 1853, he built the Liendo Mansion on a small hill above Pond Creek,
which flows into the Brazos River 14 . Liendo was one of the wealthiest plantations in the state, the social center of
the state, and employed over 300 slaves 15 . Liendo is named for the original owner of the land grant, Justo Liendo.
After the Civil War, Liendo fell on hard times; without the slave labor, it was impossible to maintain such a large
estate. Groce went bankrupt in 1868 and died penniless, like many southern planters during Reconstruction 16 .
In 1848 or 1849, Groce’s cousin Jared Ellison Kirby moved to Texas from Georgia 17 . By 1860, he owned
139 slaves and 8,000 acres on both banks of the Brazos River, including Alta Vista Plantation 18 . The plantation house
at Alta Vista was built between 1858 and 1861 and by this time the plantation employed 400 slaves 19 . Years later,
Kirby’s widow sold Alta Vista to the State of Texas and Prairie View A&M University was eventually established on
the site 20 .
Liendo and Alta Vista Plantations were home to hundreds of slaves between 1822 and 1865. However,
there are no written records of a slave burial ground for either plantation. Oral history and a few old headstones
suggest that Wyatt Chapel Cemetery, along the northern boundary of the Prairie View A&M University campus on
what was formerly the Alta Vista Plantation, served as the slave burial ground for both plantations.
Wyatt Chapel Cemetery
Wyatt Chapel Cemetery is located along the northern boundary of the campus of Prairie View A&M
University. The site is heavily vegetated with small brush, trees, and grass. Pond Creek flows around the cemetery
to the west and north. Efforts to clear the area over the years have prevented the growth of large thick trees, but
the dense low-lying brush and small trees have covered the area.
Students at Prairie View in the 1920s and 1930s reported the existence of a cemetery at the site, with fifty
or more grave stones and metal markers 21 . Oral history indicates that the cemetery was the burial place of slaves
from the Alta Vista and Liendo plantations 22 . Over the years, Prairie View A&M students and staff have continued
to discover headstones in the dense brush. They also discovered a rusted metal fence that appears to enclose several
burials.
In 1992, a historical marker was erected to recognize the significance of the site as the Wyatt Chapel
Cemetery. The marker identifies the site as Wyatt Chapel Community Cemetery and states that
55