Boonville was formerly the county seat of Brazos County (formerly part of Navasota County) in from the 1840s to the 1860s. Boonville was named for Mordecai Boon, Sr., nephew of Daniel Boone. When the Houston and Texas Central Railway was extended from Millican to Bryan in 1866, it bypassed Boonville by a mile or so and Bryan was made the county seat.
Boonville was the former residence of Harvey Mitchell, a patriarch of the Nash family. Harvey and his wife Arthusia Jane Foley Mitchell were the parents of Fannie Mitchell, wife of E. R. Nash, Sr.
The former town site is now located in Bryan near State Highway 6. Since the 1990s, a cemetery on Boonville Road was the last remaining structure associated with Boonville. It was marked by a Texas Centennial monument. Many of the Mitchell family are buried there in the cemetery. In the 2000s, a movement began to create the beautiful memorial park we now see there. It includes statues of early Texans and pioneers of the area and also replicas of early structures. It is situated between the old cemetery and Boonville Road.
In early 2017, some of us had the opportunity to visit it. Most of the photos below are from that visit. Below this are some historical photos of the old Boonville Cemetery and links concerning Boonville and the Mitchell family.
The images below are undated and show the old cemetery and the Harvey Mitchell residence that once was nearby. Courtesy of Joe Mitchell.
Links:
E R Nash Sr. and Family 