Oakwood Cemetery
Comanche, Comanche County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Reconfiguration of Comanche County by the state in 1858 led to a relocation of its county seat. In 1859 local land developer Captain John Duncan donated 200 acres here for a townsite to served as Comanche County seat. Duncan's deed specified that sufficient portions of the donated acreage be set aside for a graveyard, churches, and schools. A cemetery consisting of about 5.5 acres was established and named Oakwood for the impressive oak trees which graced the site. The earliest marked grave is that of one-year-old John Neely, who died in January 1861. Since its establishment the cemetery has been the property of the City of Comanche and has served as a community graveyard. Parcels of land originally owned by John Duncan and conveyed to William and Sue (Shortridge) Martin in 1895 were added to the interments of numerous veterans of conflicts ranging from the Republic of Texas era to the present, including both Union and Confederate soldiers from the Civil War. Also buried here are pioneers of this area and their descendants, state and national politicians, local civic leaders, and members of various fraternal organizations. (1994)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When Texas redrew Comanche County in 1858 and moved its seat, land developer Captain John Duncan donated 200 acres in 1859 for a new townsite, setting aside ground for a graveyard, churches, and schools. Named Oakwood for its stand of oaks, the cemetery's earliest marked grave is a one-year-old boy who died in 1861, and it has since gathered pioneers, civic leaders, and veterans of every conflict from the Republic of Texas onward — including both Union and Confederate dead of the Civil War. The city has owned it as a community burying ground ever since.
Why it matters
A frontier county cemetery holding Union and Confederate soldiers side by side is a quiet testament to how divided a border state remained, and to the reconciliations that followed.
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Related people
- · Captain John Duncan
- · John Neely
Related events
- · American Civil War
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
General Ashbel Smith, C.S.A.
Comanche, TX
Connecticut-born and Yale-educated, Ashbel Smith studied medicine in France before coming to Texas in 1837, where he served as the Republic's surgeon-general, diplomat to England and France, and its last Secretary of State. He fought in the Mexican War, commanded the 2nd Texas Infantry in the Civil War, and later became the first chairman of the University of Texas Board of Regents, shaping the young state's ideals of scholarship.
Mollie E. Moore
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During the Civil War, Mollie E. Moore wrote poems that Texans memorized, clipped from newspapers, and mailed to their soldiers — verses honoring fallen heroes, home units, and Confederate victories — while also nursing and doing social work at Camp Ford near Tyler. A spirited young woman who rode horseback with a pistol at her side, she went on to national fame as a poet, novelist, and columnist, married a newspaper editor, and led New Orleans society for two decades. Near this spot, at Old Mooresville (now Proctor), she often visited her brother's family.
Site of Old Gill Farm
Comanche vicinity, TX
W. A. Gill, son of a San Jacinto veteran, settled this Comanche County land in 1874 after fighting in the Civil War and serving as a captain in the Texas Rangers. His sons E. V. and Fleet lived here for many years on the family farm. In 1964 the remains in the family plot were reinterred a mile north at Buffalo Cemetery.
Taylor's Chapel (Concord) Cemetery
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This burial ground began beside the Concord Primitive Baptist Church, organized before 1881 in the pioneer country north of Comanche, with its earliest marked grave that of F. M. Warren in that same year. Warren's father, Posey W. Warren, was a deacon and likely founder of the church, and the surrounding land belonged to large settler families like the Browns, one of whom was a Confederate veteran. When a Methodist congregation formed here in 1901 on land from Alabama native James "Hood" Taylor, the site took on the name Taylor's Chapel Cemetery.