Oakwood Cemetery
Jacksboro, Jack County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Burial ground for over a century-- graves dating from 1859. Land was given by old settlers, 1883-1904. Maintained by Oakwood Cemetery Association, organized August 22, 1899, with Miss Alice Rogers first president. Charter was issued January 1908. Endowment fund started October 5, 1947. (1968) Incising on base: Given in memory of association pioneers by Ruth Hensley Richards, Pres.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Oakwood Cemetery has served Jacksboro for well over a century, with graves dating to 1859 on land donated by old settlers between 1883 and 1904. In 1899 townspeople organized the Oakwood Cemetery Association—with Miss Alice Rogers as its first president—and secured a charter in 1908 to care for the grounds. An endowment begun in 1947 helped ensure the burial ground endured as a lasting record of the frontier community's founders.
Why it matters
Community cemeteries like Oakwood preserve the names and memory of the ordinary settlers who built north Texas, and the women-led association reflects the civic stewardship that sustained frontier towns.
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Related people
- · Alice Rogers
- · Ruth Hensley Richards
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Old Jack County Courthouse Cornerstone
Jacksboro, TX
This cornerstone and bell are relics of Jack County's third courthouse, a building of native limestone quarried right in Jacksboro and praised in its day for fine workmanship. When that courthouse was razed in 1885, the cornerstone was saved, and in 1966 townspeople mounted it here; local firemen later set the old clock-tower bell nearby. Together they preserve a piece of the county's frontier civic life.
Jack County
Jacksboro, TX
Created in 1856 and named for Texas Revolution patriots W. H. and P. C. Jack, Jack County sat squarely on the violent post-Civil War frontier. Its citizens voted overwhelmingly against secession in 1861, and after the war Fort Richardson (1867) anchored the U.S. Army's campaigns against the Plains tribes. The 1871 Kiowa raid on the Warren Wagon Train prompted General Sherman to send Colonel Ranald MacKenzie after the raiders; the resulting trial of chiefs Satanta and Big Tree was among the first prosecutions of Plains Indians in a civilian court. The county was also, improbably, home to a 1907 corn club that helped seed the national 4-H movement.
Fort Richardson Hotel
Jacksboro, TX
Built in 1899 by H. J. Hensley and L. A. Wilson on the site of the earlier Wichita House, the Fort Richardson Hotel served the frontier town of Jacksboro near the U.S. Army post whose name it borrowed. It was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1967 and preserved by a Hensley descendant.
Butterfield Stage Line
Jacksboro, TX
Through this spot ran the Butterfield line of the Southern Overland Mail, which from 1858 to 1861 carried mail and passengers by stagecoach the astonishing 2,795 miles between St. Louis and San Francisco. Twice a week the coaches rolled through, and the reliability of the service over such punishing distance made it one of the great transportation feats of its age—until the Civil War severed the southern route.