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Oak
Grove Cemetery
Photo courtesy Dana
Goolsby, November 2010 |
Historical Marker:
Oak Grove Cemetery
Originally called
"American Cemetery," Oak Grove Cemetery is located on the 1826
land grant of Empresario Haden
Edwards. The leader of the 1826 Fredonian Rebellion, Edwards is
interred here. The earliest marked burial on this site is that of
Franklin
J. Starr (d. 1837), a native of New Hartford, Connecticut and
a local realtor.
Many graves from the early Spanish cemetery of Nacogdoches
were relocated to this site when the county
courthouse was erected on the Spanish cemetery grounds in 1912.
The earliest grave from that burial ground is marked, "Father Mendoza,"
1718.
Oak Grove Cemetery is filled with historical figures important both
to Nacogdoches
County and the State of Texas. Perhaps the most famous is Thomas
Jefferson Rusk, judge, statesman and Sam
Houston's secretary of war. Like Rusk, Charles
Stanfield Taylor, John
S. Roberts and William
Clark, Jr., signed the Texas Declaration of Independence.
Other statesmen and soldiers interred here include Captain Haden Arnold
and Elias E. Hamilton, veterans of the Battle
of San Jacinto; Jacob Lewis; James Harper Starr; General Kelsey
H. Douglass; George F. Ingraham; Nicholas Adolphus Sterne; Captain
Frederick Voigt; and Dr. Robert A. Irion, who also was Sam
Houston's personal physician.
Other burials of interest include those of former slaves Mitchell
Thorn, Lawrence Sleet and Eliza Walker. Frost Thorn was among Texas'
early millionaires; Deidrich Anton Wilhelm Rulfs, Nacogdoches'
master architect, designed Zion Hill Baptist Church on the north side
of the cemetery. Richard William Haltom founded and edited Nacogdoches'
"The Daily Sentinel," and poet Karle Wilson Baker was the third person
named a fellow to the Texas Institute of Letters.
2000 |
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Oak
Grove Cemetery Historical Marker
Photo courtesy Dana
Goolsby, November 2010 |
Franklin
Jefferson Starr Tombstone
Photo courtesy Dana
Goolsby, November 2010 |
Oldest
Dated Grave: 1837
Photo courtesy Dana
Goolsby, November 2010 |
Thomas
J. Rusk Monument
Photo courtesy Dana
Goolsby, November 2010 |
Charles
Standfield Taylor
1936 Texas Centennial Marker
Photo courtesy Dana
Goolsby, November 2010 |
Dr.
Robert Irion Tombstone
Photo courtesy Dana
Goolsby, November 2010 |
Haden
Edwards
1936 Texas Centennial Marker
Photo courtesy Dana
Goolsby, November 2010 |
John
S. Roberts
1936 Texas Centennial Marker
Photo courtesy Dana
Goolsby, November 2010 |
William
Clark, Jr.
Photo courtesy Dana
Goolsby, November 2010 |
William
Clark, Jr.
1936 Texas Centennial Marker
Photo courtesy Dana
Goolsby, November 2010 |
| Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories,
landmarks and recent or vintage photos, please contact
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