Riverside Cemetery
Iredell, Bosque County, Texas
Marker Inscription
According to local oral tradition, land for this cemetery and the adjacent church was donated by the family of Ward Keeler, a New York native who came to Bosque County about 1870 and founded the town of Iredell. The oldest documented grave here is that of James W. P. Ware, who died in November 1870. The primary burial ground for Iredell citizens for generations, Riverside Cemetery contains more than one thousand interments, both marked and unmarked. Its varied styles of gravestones stand as a reminder of the community's pioneer heritage. (1992)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
According to local tradition, the land for this cemetery and its neighboring church was given by the family of Ward Keeler, a New York native who reached Bosque County around 1870 and founded the town of Iredell. The oldest documented grave is that of James W.P. Ware, who died in November 1870. For generations the primary burial ground for Iredell, Riverside holds more than a thousand marked and unmarked graves whose varied headstones recall the community's pioneer heritage.
Why it matters
The cemetery is the enduring record of a frontier town's founding generation, its weathered and varied gravestones preserving the memory of the pioneers who built Iredell.
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Related people
- · Ward Keeler
- · James W.P. Ware
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Iredell First United Methodist Church
Iredell, TX
Methodism took root around Iredell in 1869, when worshippers shared the Hester Schoolhouse with local Baptists under the Rev. Peter W. Gravis. A land gift from Dr. J.S. Wills gave the congregation its own chapel and campground, and as the settlement shifted, members literally moved the building into town in the late 1870s. Over the following century the church steadily grew in membership and in the programs it offered a small Bosque County community.
William Berry Smith
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William Berry Smith came to Texas from North Carolina in 1834, served as a soldier in the Texas War for Independence, and went on to fight as a veteran of the frontier Indian wars. He lived to the age of 84, dying in 1876, and was honored with this state marker in 1957.
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