Columbus Odd Fellows Rest Cemetery
Columbus, Colorado County, Texas
Marker Inscription
John Toliver deeded a tract of land to Columbus Lodge No. 51, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in July 1871 for use as a cemetery. Among the first to be interred here were victims of the 1873 yellow fever epidemic, including George W. Smith, district judge and Texas Supreme Court justice. Within a few years, a bluff on the south side began to erode, exposing some graves. In 1888 a committee was appointed to take preventative measures. The grave of Henry Middleton (d. 1888) was washed out before their efforts were successful. The Odd Fellows sold the cemetery to the newly formed Columbus Cemetery Association in 1890. The association added land in 1901. Many stones, such as those of the Dick family, were relocated from the Old City Cemetery to higher ground in the Odd Fellows Rest Cemetery after a devastating flood in 1913. Among the many burials of note in the Odd Fellows Rest Cemetery was that of J. W. E. Wallace, a Columbus founder, whose grave was moved to the State Cemetery in Austin. Robert and John Stafford, prominent Columbus businessmen, died as a result of a feud which also involved deputy sheriff Larkin S. Hope and his uncle, Sheriff J. "Light" Townsend. Hope is interred here. Wells Thompson was a Texas state senator and lieutenant governor. Others include local poets and historians, as well as veterans of the Civil War, the U. S. War with Mexico, Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, and other international wars and conflicts. More land was added to the cemetery in 1977. It continues to serve the city of Columbus at the dawn of the 21st century. The Columbus Odd Fellows Rest Cemetery is a chronicle of the history and pride of Colorado County. (2000) Incising on base: Researched by Mary Lynn skinner
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
John Toliver deeded this Columbus tract to the local Odd Fellows lodge for a cemetery in 1871, and among its first burials were victims of the 1873 yellow fever epidemic. Erosion along a bluff repeatedly threatened graves, and after a devastating 1913 flood many stones were relocated here from the old city cemetery to higher ground. Its burials include judges, legislators, and figures from a notorious local feud, making the grounds a chronicle of Colorado County.
Why it matters
The cemetery's shifting graves and epidemic victims record how disease, flooding, and violence shaped daily survival in a nineteenth-century Texas river town.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · George W. Smith
- · J. Light Townsend
Related events
- · 1873 yellow fever epidemic
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Colonel Joseph Worthington Elliott Wallace
Columbus, TX
A Philadelphia native, Wallace served as United States Consul to the Texas colonies from 1829 to 1832 before joining Austin's Colony and the campaigns for Texas independence. In 1837 he helped plat the town of Columbus with W. B. DeWees, and he later fought at the 1840 Battle of Plum Creek against the Comanche and under General Edward Burleson in the 1842 defense against Mexican invasion.
Columbus' Old City Cemetery
Columbus, TX
Columbus's old cemetery holds the founders of one of Texas's oldest towns, with its earliest headstone dating to 1853 and the city taking title to the seven acres in 1870. Among the buried are Benjamin Beason and town founder W.B. DeWees, both of Stephen F. Austin's "Old 300" colonists, early historian Dilue Rose, a War of 1812 and Texas Revolution veteran, and numerous Confederate soldiers and victims of the 1873 yellow fever epidemic.
William Demetris Lacey
Columbus, TX
Born in Virginia and raised in Kentucky, William Demetris Lacey settled in what is now Columbus around 1831, opening a tanyard and saddle shop and marrying Sarah Ann Bright. Elected to office while Texas was still part of Mexico, he was chosen as a delegate to the Convention of 1836 at Washington-on-the-Brazos, where he signed the Texas Declaration of Independence. After service in the Texas army he returned to find his home in ruins, resettling on land granted for his service before dying in Kentucky in 1848.
George Glenn
Columbus, TX
Born into slavery in 1850 and raised on a Colorado County ranch, George Glenn trained as a cowhand and trail cook and stayed on the Johnson Ranch as a free man after Emancipation. On an 1870 cattle drive to Abilene his employer, Bob Johnson, died; after the herd was sold, Glenn disinterred the body and drove it nearly 800 miles home by wagon over six weeks for reburial. Honored decades later at Old Trail Drivers reunions and interviewed by folklorist J. Frank Dobie, he became one of the few Black members remembered by name from the great cattle-drive era.