Clark Cemetery
Weatherford, Parker County, Texas
Marker Inscription
CLARK CEMETERY A COMMON BURIAL GROUND FOR EARLY PIONEER SETTLERS WHO CAMPED ALONG THE CLEAR FORK OF THE TRINITY RIVER, THE CLARK CEMETERY CONSISTS OF MANY BURIAL SITES FROM THE 1830s. IN DECEMBER OF 1853, REVEREND JOHN WILLIAM GODFREY (1825-1897) AND HIS WIFE, ANZALINE (BARKER) GODFREY (1831-1859), ARRIVED IN PARKER COUNTY FROM MISSOURI. GODFREY ESTABLISHED A METHODIST CHURCH IN THE WRIGHT COMMUNITY, NORTHEAST OF WEATHERFORD, WHERE THEY LIVED. IN 1859, ANZALINE PASSED AWAY AND WAS BURIED IN THE WRIGHT COMMUNITY BURIAL GROUNDS. IN 1880, JIM CLARK AND WILLIAM HENRY WARD FORMALLY ESTABLISHED A PERMANENT CEMETERY AT THE ORIGINAL LOCATION OF GODFREY’S CHAPEL METHODIST CHURCH. IN 1953, SIGNED DOCUMENTS DEEDED TRACT NO. 1 AND NO. 2 OF THE LAND AS BURIAL PLOT PROPERTY. ADDITIONAL LAND WAS ADDED IN 1958 AND IN 1999. IN ADDITION TO NUMEROUS PIONEER FAMILIES AND FARMERS, CLARK CEMETERY IS THE FINAL RESTING PLACE OF A FOUNDER OF EARLY PARKER COUNTY METHODIST CHURCHES, AN ORGANIZER OF JACK COUNTY, A TRUSTEE OF AN EARLY PIONEER SCHOOL AND A COUNTY CHIEF JUSTICE. THE OLDEST MARKED HEADSTONE IN THE CEMETERY BELONGS TO ANZALINE GODFREY, ALTHOUGH SIXTY-FIVE UNIDENTIFIED BURIAL SITES FROM THE PIONEER ERA WERE DISCOVERED WITH GROUND PENETRATING RADAR. THE CONNECTION TO MILITARY SERVICE IS REPRESENTED BY VETERANS OF THE TEXAS RANGERS, THE CIVIL WAR, WORLD WAR I, WORLD WAR II, VIETNAM AND THE KOREAN WAR. THE LANDSCAPE OF THE CLARK CEMETERY IS TRADITIONAL WITH LIVE OAK, ELM AND POST OAK TREES WITH A LIMESTONE AND STEEL ENTRANCE GATE, RESTROOMS AND A COVERED PAVILION. THE CLARK CEMETERY ASSOCIATION CONTINUES TO CARE FOR THIS HISTORIC CEMETERY. HISTORIC TEXAS CEMETERY – 2011
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This burial ground began with the pioneer families who camped along the Clear Fork of the Trinity River in the 1830s, and its oldest marked grave belongs to Anzaline Godfrey, wife of a Methodist circuit-founder, who died in 1859. Ground-penetrating radar has since revealed some sixty-five unmarked pioneer-era graves alongside the named ones. Formally established in 1880 on the site of Godfrey's Chapel, the cemetery holds early Methodist founders, county organizers, a chief justice, and veterans reaching from the Texas Rangers through Korea and Vietnam.
Why it matters
A single Texas cemetery like this preserves the whole arc of a frontier community — its first families, its churches, and generations of its soldiers — in one patch of live oak and limestone.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Long before there were fences and county roads here, travelers and settlers camped along the Clear Fork of the Trinity River, drawn by its water in a wide, open country. This corner of North Texas was frontier in the fullest sense — a place where families arrived, buried their dead where they fell, and moved on or stayed to build.
The burials here reach back to the 1830s, which places the earliest of them among the very first waves of settlement in the region. In those years there were no established towns to speak of nearby, only scattered communities and the churches and burial grounds that grew up around them.
By the middle of the century, settlers were coming from older states to put down roots. A cemetery like this one is a record of that arrival — the physical trace of people who chose this stretch of prairie and river to become home.
People & events
In December 1853, the Reverend John William Godfrey (1825–1897) and his wife, Anzaline Barker Godfrey (1831–1859), arrived in the county from Missouri. Godfrey founded a Methodist church in the Wright community, northeast of the county seat, where the couple settled and gave their energy to the young congregation.
Grief marked the family early. In 1859 Anzaline died and was laid to rest in the local burial grounds, and today hers is the oldest marked headstone in the cemetery — a single carved name standing for a whole generation of pioneers. In 1880, two men, Jim Clark and William Henry Ward, formally established a permanent cemetery on the original site of Godfrey's Chapel, and later decades saw the land deeded and expanded to secure it for good.
The people resting here read like a roster of frontier community-building: a founder of early Methodist churches, an organizer of a neighboring county, a trustee of an early pioneer school, and a county chief justice — the pre-modern Texas office that served as the forerunner of today's county judge. Modern ground-penetrating radar has since revealed sixty-five more graves from the pioneer era, unnamed but not forgotten.
Its place in the American story
A cemetery like this is a compact archive of the American frontier. In one patch of live oak and limestone you can trace the whole arc of a community — its first families, the church that anchored them, the local leaders who organized its institutions, and the soldiers it sent to the nation's wars.
That military thread is remarkably long. The dead here include veterans reaching from the Texas Rangers and the Civil War through both World Wars, Korea, and Vietnam — generations of service gathered in a single ground.
And those sixty-five unmarked graves tell their own national truth: for every settler whose name survives, many more helped build the country anonymously. Modern technology giving them back a place on the map is, in its way, a small act of historical justice.
If you visit
This is a place to walk slowly and read stones. Look first for the oldest marked headstone, dating to 1859, and let it anchor your sense of just how far back this ground goes. From there, the mix of pioneer family names, farmers, and veterans across many wars rewards a patient eye.
The setting itself is part of the experience — traditional and shaded, with live oak, elm, and post oak, a limestone-and-steel entrance gate, and a covered pavilion that makes it easy to pause. It has the calm, tended feeling of a place still cared for by the people whose ancestors lie here.
As you go, remember the graves you can't see. Knowing that dozens of unidentified pioneers rest among the marked ones gives even the empty-seeming ground a quiet weight. It's a fitting stop for a traveler who wants to feel the depth of North Texas history in one contemplative place.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · John William Godfrey
- · Anzaline Barker Godfrey
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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