McGill County Cemetery is located behind Magoffin Middle School. The cemetery can be accessed from Pandora Street, which intersects with Hercules Avenue.



McGill County Cemetery is one of a succession of paupers' burial grounds owned and operated by El Paso County. (These are separate and distinct from El Paso City cemeteries.). In 1927, the County Commissioners approved the purchase of 30 acres of land for $100 per acre on Newman Road for a new county cemetery. This would replace the pauper's facility located within Concordia Cemetery that was known informally as "Concordia county cemetery." The new location was referred to as "Restlawn county cemetery" because it was located about one and one-half miles from the privately owned Restlawn Cemetery (now called Restlawn Memorial Park). Parts of the original 30-acre tract were sold and traded by the County, and today the cemetery comprises about four acres.



The county cemetery received its first burials in October 1933: Elena Renteria was the first infant buried in the Baby Section, and Anastacia Morales was the first adult buried in Section A in the northwest portion of the cemetery. Graves are arranged in chronological order by death date of the individual.



When the cemetery opened in 1933, it was run by the El Paso County Judge's office. For a decade, that position was held by Justice Joseph McGill. In 1957, a year after the Judge's death, the cemetery was named for him when it officially became the "McGill County Cemetery." The large rock wall surrounding the premises was built in 1933 with labor from 50 employees of the Civil Works Administration program. County workers made concrete headstones, 15" x 24", for each grave. Currently, the county's General Assistance Agency operates the cemetery with maintenance being handled by the Roads and Bridges Department as well as community volunteers and probationers.



As of 1995, the County Commissioners required that all adults buried by the county had to be cremated to reduce costs. This did not apply to children age 17 years and under or to unknowns (John Doe and Jane Doe).



As of 2005, the county's indigent residents were being buried at a new location in Horizon City called Ascencion Cemetery because McGill had run out of space.