The town of Calgando was established in the 1870s near this site on Sunday Creek. Soon after, land was donated for this cemetery. The oldest marked grave bears the date 1875, though older unmarked graves exist according to local tradition. By 1880 Calgando was a local trade center, but when the new Texas and Pacific Railroad line passed one mile west that year, the town of Santo was established and Calgando businesses moved there. The cemetery remained, later called "Santo East." Many gravestones document an influenza epidemic in 1918. (Historical Marker, 1986).