Oakwood Cemetery
Huntsville, Walker County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This cemetery existed as early as 1846. For three graves were placed here that year. Pleasant Gray, Huntsville's founder, deeded in 1847 a 1,600-square foot plot at this site. The original tract has been greatly enlarged by other donations from local citizens. Numerous graves bear the death date 1867, when a yellow-fever epidemic swept the county. Among the many famous persons buried here are General Sam Houston; Henderson King Yoakum, author of the first comprehensive history of Texas; state congressmen; and pioneer families.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Burials began here as early as 1846, and in 1847 Huntsville's founder Pleasant Gray deeded a plot that neighbors' donations steadily enlarged. Many stones bear the date 1867, when a yellow-fever epidemic swept Walker County. Among those who rest here are General Sam Houston, the towering figure of the Texas Revolution and Republic, and Henderson King Yoakum, author of the first comprehensive history of Texas.
Why it matters
As the resting place of Sam Houston and other founders, Oakwood Cemetery is hallowed ground in the story of Texas independence and early statehood.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Sam Houston
- · Henderson King Yoakum
- · Pleasant Gray
Related events
- · 1867 yellow fever epidemic
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Sam Houston
Huntsville, TX
Born in Virginia in 1793 and raised in Tennessee, Sam Houston fought under Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812 and rose to serve in Congress and as Tennessee's governor before heading west. Settling in Nacogdoches, he led the Army of the Republic to victory at San Jacinto in 1836, served twice as president of the Republic of Texas and later as U.S. senator and governor, and in 1861 refused to swear loyalty to the Confederacy, dying at Huntsville in 1863.
Besser, General John Slater
Huntsville, TX
John Slater Besser had already been a brigadier general, legislator, and judge in Missouri before he moved his family to Texas in 1842. Over the following decades he held a string of public offices in Montgomery and Walker counties, serving as director and financial agent of the state penitentiary under a long line of governors and as Walker County Judge from 1878 to 1880. His career spanned the years bracketing the Civil War.
Jesse Parker
Huntsville, TX
Jesse Parker, already a veteran of the War of 1812, moved to Mexican Texas in 1822 among the earliest Anglo colonists. He represented the Sabine District at the 1832 Convention at San Felipe de Austin—one of the gatherings that pushed Texas toward independence—and later farmed his land grant in what became Walker County while serving as a deputy land commissioner. Buried on his own property in 1849, he was reinterred here more than a century later.
Site of Cumberland Presbyterian Church
Huntsville, TX
On this ground stood the first church building in Huntsville, erected soon after trustees bought the land in 1849 for the town's Cumberland Presbyterians. The sanctuary opened its doors to other denominations as well, and it embodied a frontier faith carried across Texas by itinerant preachers such as Sumner Bacon; from here Andrew Jackson McGown published the denomination's newspaper, the Texas Presbyterian. Battered by the Civil War and the deadly 1867 yellow fever epidemic, the congregation disbanded, and the building was later moved and eventually collapsed.