Rosewood Cemetery
Gilmer, Upshur County, Texas
Marker Inscription
When the Marshall and East Texas Railroad was built through this area in 1907, the town of Rosewood was organized, replacing the earlier communities of Double Springs and Essex. Denny Dell McDonald, four-year-old son of J. P. and Zula A. McDonald, died February 16, 1907, and was buried in the nearby Hopewell Cemetery. Wishing to be closer to their son's grave, the McDonalds donated property for a Rosewood Community Cemetery, and the child was reinterred here a few months later. The cemetery was maintained in early years by members of the community, who often took turns digging graves. The plot was originally surrounded by barbed wire, which was replaced in the 1950s by a chain link fence. A variety of grave markers can be found here, including large granite stones, Woodmen of the World monuments, and an intricately carved angel on the grave of Clara McKinney (1909-1921). There are also monuments for local veterans, including one who was lost at sea during World War II in 1943. A cemetery association, formed in 1977, maintains the graveyard and hosts an annual homecoming and memorial service.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When the Marshall and East Texas Railroad arrived in 1907, the new town of Rosewood absorbed the older settlements of Double Springs and Essex. That same year the grieving McDonald family donated land for a community cemetery and reinterred their young son here. Maintained for decades by neighbors who took turns digging graves, the cemetery holds granite markers, Woodmen of the World monuments, a carved angel, and memorials to local veterans, including one lost at sea in World War II.
Why it matters
A community cemetery like Rosewood is a bound archive of a town's whole life—its founding, its families, and the wars its sons went off to.
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Related people
- · Denny Dell McDonald
- · Clara McKinney
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Rosewood Baptist Church
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Founded in 1872 as Double Springs Baptist Church under the Rev. Jacob Zeigler, this East Texas congregation took root in a scattered rural settlement soon after the Civil War. When the Marshall & East Texas Railway arrived and a townsite was platted, the community—and the church—were renamed Rosewood in 1907. Part of the original meeting house survives within the later building, a rare thread of continuity in a region reshaped by the railroad.
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