- Source: Oakwood Cemetery (Fort Worth, Texas)
Oakwood Cemetery is a historic cemetery in the city of Fort Worth, Texas. Deeded to the city in 1879, it is the burial place of prominent local citizens, pioneers, politicians, and performers.
Located at 701 Grand Avenue, Oakwood is a 62-acre cemetery on the north side of the Trinity River, just across the river from downtown Fort Worth.
The cemetery is actually composed of three historically distinct cemeteries divided along racial and religious lines: New City Cemetery, the oldest section historically limited to white burials; Trinity Cemetery, designated for African-American burials; and Calvary Cemetery, a section specifically for Catholic burials.
The cemetery was designated a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018 and a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1966. One grave site within the cemetery is also designated separately as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark since 1983.
History
The original 20 acres that form the City Cemetery were deeded to the City of Fort Worth by local civic leader John Peter Smith in 1879, after the city's oldest cemetery, Pioneers Rest, had rapidly filled. In 1880, a section of the property was partitioned off and limited to Catholic burials at the request of Bishop C.W. Dubois of Galveston. This new Catholic section was named Calvary Cemetery.
The Oakwood Cemetery Association formed in 1908 and a chapel was built on the north end of the property in 1912. In 1926 a new Oakwood Cemetery Association charter was instated requiring a five-member board of directors. The president of the Fort Worth National Bank, the institution that held the association's funds in trust, was required to be a director; of the remaining four members, two had to be women. Among the first board members were Jennie Scott Scheuber, a local civic leader and the city's first librarian, and Major K.M. Van Zandt, longtime president of the Fort Worth National Bank. In 1952, the charter was amended to allow board representation from any bank in Fort Worth with oversight of the association's endowment.
Notable graves and monuments
Oakwood Cemetery is home to Bartenders' Row, a section of graves belonging to bartenders from Fort Worth's notorious Hell's Half Acre, and Bricklayers' Row, a section formerly reserved for members of the local bricklayers' union. In 1903, Fort Worth mayor T.J. Powell designated a section of the cemetery, known as Soldiers' Row, for the burial of Confederate Civil War veterans and their wives.
Notable local individuals interred at Oakwood Cemetery include:
Adrienne Ames (1907–1947), actress
Charles Keith Bell (1853–1913), member of the United States House of Representatives
Euday Louis Bowman (1887–1949), musician and ragtime composer
Samuel Burk Burnett (1849–1922), cattleman and owner of the 6666 Ranch
Mary Couts Burnett (1856–1924), philanthropist and donor to Texas Christian University
William Paxton Burts, first mayor of Fort Worth
Horace J. Carswell, Jr. (1916–1944), U.S. Army major and namesake of the former Carswell Air Force Base
Jim Courtwright (1848–1887), Fort Worth sheriff killed in gun battle with Luke Short
Charles Allen Culberson (1855–1925), Texas governor and U.S. Senator
Elisha Adam Euless (1848–1911), founder and namesake of the city of Euless, Texas
Al Hayne (1850–1890), British civil engineer who perished rescuing women & children from the Texas Spring Palace fire
Gladys McClure (1914–1933), actress and sister of Adrienne Ames
William Madison "Gooseneck Bill" McDonald (1866–1950), African-American politician and businessman
Jim Miller (1861–1909), outlaw and assassin
Joe Pate (1892–1948), professional baseball player
Jennie Scott Scheuber (1860–1944), notable librarian and civic leader
Luke Short (1854–1893), cowboy, gunfighter, and saloon owner
John Bunyan Slaughter (1848–1928), rancher
John Peter Smith (1831–1901), civic leader and six-term mayor of Fort Worth and namesake of John Peter Smith Hospital
Khleber Miller Van Zandt (1836–1930), businessman and politician
Electra Waggoner (1882–1925), rancher, heiress, and socialite
William Thomas Waggoner (1852–1934), rancher and oilman
Thomas Neville Waul (1813–1903), Confederate Army brigadier general; the grave is designated Recorded Texas Historic Landmark #2142
In December 2017, the 1,100-year-old remains of a Native American woman found by construction workers digging a trench in downtown Fort Worth were buried at Oakwood Cemetery in accordance with NAGPRA requirements; burial rites were performed by local Native American spiritual leaders.
See also
National Register of Historic Places listings in Tarrant County, Texas
Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks in Tarrant County
References
External links
Media related to Oakwood Cemetery at Wikimedia Commons
Oakwood Cemetery at Find a Grave
Kata Kunci Pencarian:
- Oakwood Cemetery (Fort Worth, Texas)
- Anne Burnett Tandy
- Pioneers Rest (Fort Worth, Texas)
- William Thomas Waggoner
- List of cemeteries in Texas
- Mary Couts Burnett
- John Bunyan Slaughter
- Charles A. Culberson
- Adrienne Ames
- Texas Spring Palace