Alvarado Glenwood Cemetery
Alvarado, Johnson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Two early area families established cemeteries at this site in the 1870s. During that time, the Campbell and Sansom families purchased land in this vicinity. The first documented burial is that of seven-month-old Ula Sansom (d. 1876), who was buried in the Sansom family plot. The following year, Louisianna Campbell (1826-1877), was buried in the Campbell plot. Several more burials were made during the next two decades. In 1881, the railroad came to Alvarado, bringing with it many new residents. With more families in the area and a growing need for additional cemetery space, many buried their loved ones in the vicinity of the Sansom and Campbell plots. In 1896, the local Knights of Pythias and I.O.O.F. lodges established burial grounds on land surrounding the two family plots. During the Great Depression, the City of Alvarado took over care for the cemeteries, which were known collectively as Glenwood Cemetery. Additional land enlarged the graveyard, for which in 1970 a cemetery association formed to maintain and preserve the site. Today, the burial ground remains a link to early pioneers and the history of generations of Alvarado residents. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2004
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the 1870s, two pioneer families — the Campbells and the Sansoms — buried their dead on a rise of North Texas prairie, the earliest a seven-month-old child laid to rest in 1876. When the railroad reached Alvarado in 1881, newcomers poured in and buried their own kin beside those first family plots, and by 1896 the Knights of Pythias and Odd Fellows had added lodge burial grounds. During the Great Depression the city took over care of the combined grounds, known ever since as Glenwood Cemetery.
Why it matters
A pioneer graveyard that grew from two family plots into a whole community's resting place traces, in headstones, how the railroad turned a frontier settlement into a lasting Texas town.
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Related people
- · Ula Sansom
- · Louisianna Campbell
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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