Mt. Pisgah Church and Cemetery
Oakwood, Leon County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Although records do not indicate when the Mt. Pisgah Cemetery was started, the earliest marked grave is that of John W. Orenbaum (1852-1854). According to local tradition, the graveyard may also contain earlier unmarked burials. Interred in the cemetery are many area pioneers, veterans of the Texas Revolution, the Civil War, World War I, and World War II, and victims of an early influenza epidemic. Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church was organized in 1855. A building of hewn logs, called the Board Shanty, was erected next to the cemetery. It was moved in 1892. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Though records don't fix its beginning, the Mt. Pisgah Cemetery's earliest marked grave belongs to a child who died in 1854, and local tradition holds that older unmarked burials lie among the pioneers here. Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church was organized in 1855 beside it in a hewn-log building called the Board Shanty, and the graveyard holds veterans of the Texas Revolution, the Civil War, and both World Wars, along with victims of an early influenza epidemic.
Why it matters
The church and its cemetery form a layered record of frontier Leon County, holding generations who lived through the Republic, the Civil War, and the wars of the twentieth century in a single sacred ground.
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Related people
- · John W. Orenbaum
Themes & tags
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