Bolivar Cemetery
Sanger, Denton County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The town of Bolivar was laid out by Dr. Hiram Daily in 1852 with a burial plot on high ground nearby. Though the site had probably been used as a burial ground for many years, the earliest marked grave is that of 4-month-old Zolly Cofer Waide, who was born and died in 1863. G. A. Grissom, a prominent Bolivar Masonic leader, died in 1876. After his interment, Bolivar Lodge No. 418, A. F. & A. M. and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Lodge No. 221 set aside five newly purchased acres, including the graveyard, for community burials. A decorative fence was installed across the front of the cemetery in that year. Many monuments were erected by the Woodmen of the World organization. Many of the nine adults and eight infants buried in 1892 were victims of a nationwide influenza epidemic. Another influenza epidemic in 1918 claimed more lives. Bolivar citizens of all walks of life were buried here. Some were members of farming and ranching families; others were business people, educators, physicians, and ministers. They include veterans of the Mexican War, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Operated by the board of trustees of the Bolivar Cemetery Association, the graveyard continues to serve area residents, many of whom are descendants of those who shaped the history of Bolivar and Denton County. The burial ground remains a record of the pioneer settlers of the area. (1998)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Dr. Hiram Daily laid out the town of Bolivar in 1852 with a burial ground on high ground nearby, and by the 1870s local Masonic and Odd Fellows lodges had set aside acreage for community burials. The graves read like a ledger of frontier life and death: infants and adults lost to the influenza epidemics of 1892 and 1918, farmers and ranchers, teachers, physicians, and ministers. Among them rest veterans of conflicts from the Mexican War through Vietnam, generations of one small Texas community.
Why it matters
Bolivar Cemetery preserves the ordinary settlers whose farms and families built Denton County, and the toll that disease and war took across more than a century of American life.
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Related people
- · Hiram Daily
- · G. A. Grissom
Related events
- · 1918 influenza pandemic
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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