Willow Point Cemetery
Willow Point, Wise County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Willow Point Cemetery had its origins in 1882 when Anna M. English died on October 23 and was buried on land owned by Samuel G. Evitts. The next year, on July 13, Evitts died and was buried in the same area. The land changed hands several times before ownership passed to D. H. and M. M. Bishop, who deeded the property to Woodman of the World Camp #1763 in 1905. The deed stated that the older, fenced part of the cemetery would remain a free public burying ground. It is believed that the cemetery contains many unmarked burials. The northwest corner of the plot contains the grave of a Confederate soldier who was discharged from Fort Richardson in Jack County, and whose name has long since been forgotten. Also, interred here are other Civil War veterans as well as veterans of World War I, World War II, and the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Samuel G. Evitts, original owner of the site, was a veteran of the Texas War for Independence as well as the Civil War. The Willow Point Cemetery Association, organized in 1947, is responsible for maintenance and hosts an annual homecoming and cleaning day.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This quiet Wise County burying ground traces its beginnings to 1882, when Anna M. English became the first person laid to rest on land then owned by pioneer Samuel G. Evitts. When Evitts himself died the following year, the site began its long life as a community cemetery, later deeded to a Woodmen of the World camp with the promise that the older section stay a free public ground. Beneath its markers—and many forgotten, unmarked graves—rest veterans spanning the Texas Revolution and Civil War through the World Wars, Korea, and Vietnam.
Why it matters
A country cemetery like this is a layered record of a single community's sacrifice across a century of American conflict, from a nameless Confederate soldier to twentieth-century servicemen.
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Related people
- · Anna M. English
- · Samuel G. Evitts
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Samuel G. Evetts
Willow Point, TX
A Tennessee native, Samuel G. Evetts came to Texas in the 1830s and was wounded at the Siege of Bexar in December 1835, an early clash of the Texas Revolution. He later lived in several counties, earning land grants for his Republic of Texas military service and a state pension in 1870, before moving to Wise County, where he died in 1884. Thrice married and father of eleven, he saw his name spelled variously as Evetts and Evitts over the years.
Dr. M. W. Matthews
Paradise, TX
Kentucky-born M. W. Matthews was both frontier doctor and preacher across nineteenth-century Texas. As an army surgeon in the Texas Revolution he treated Sam Houston after San Jacinto, later served in the Republic's Congress, and took part in the Mexican War. A firm Unionist during the Civil War, he once narrowly escaped hanging by Southern vigilantes even as he went on founding churches across the state.
George Lafayette Ramsdale
Paradise, TX
George Lafayette Ramsdale left Devonshire, England, and by 1836 had reached Texas, enlisting in the army during the war for independence from Mexico. He and his wife Elizabeth moved across several counties before the Civil War, when he served the Confederacy guarding the frontier. Settling in Wise County in 1866, he farmed and ran a tannery until his death in 1884.
Whitt Cemetery
Whitt, TX
Permanent settlers arrived here in the mid-1850s, and the town of Whitt was formally established in 1877 as a farming community and stagecoach stop between Weatherford and Jacksboro. It grew into a regional education center, home to Whitt Seminary and Parker Institute. The community cemetery, in use since at least 1879, now spreads over eight acres with more than 1,000 graves, including pioneers and veterans of conflicts from the Civil War through Vietnam.