Pickwick-McAdams Cemetery
Graford, Palo Pinto County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Tennessee native Capt. William Carroll McAdams (1825-1906) came to Texas in the 1840s, served as a Texas Ranger, and fought in the Mexican war (1846-1848). McAdams and his wife Ann (Alexander) acquired this land in 1854 and began cattle raising. The cemetery opened after the death of Mrs. McAdams. The first marked grave is that of Mary M. Couger in 1889. McAdams Cemetery served the Pickwick Community (now under the lake). In 1940 graves were moved here from Carter Bend Cemetery which was on the proposed Possum Kingdom Lake site. (1979)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Capt. William Carroll McAdams left Tennessee for Texas in the 1840s, rangered on the frontier, and fought in the Mexican War before he and his wife Ann settled this land in 1854 to raise cattle. The burial ground that grew up here served the Pickwick community, later drowned beneath Possum Kingdom Lake, and in 1940 gathered in graves relocated from Carter Bend Cemetery ahead of the reservoir.
Why it matters
It marks how a single pioneer family's homestead became the enduring resting place of a frontier community that the coming of a dam would otherwise have erased from the map.
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Related people
- · William Carroll McAdams
- · Ann Alexander McAdams
- · Mary M. Couger
Related events
- · Mexican War
- · Possum Kingdom Lake construction
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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