Oakwood Cemetery
Oakwood Cemetery may refer to any of at least 200 cemeteries named "Oakwood" or "Oak Wood" in the United States, including:\
See also
Oakwood Cemetery (Waco, Texas)
Oakwood Cemetery is a 157-acre (64 ha) cemetery in Waco, Texas, in which three governors of Texas are buried.
History
Founded in 1878, to relieve crowded conditions at Waco's main, First Street Cemetery, the cemetery was built on the site of an abandoned horse racing track.
Many interred remains from other early local graveyards were moved here because of the better maintenance of these grounds. Since 1898, the Oakwood Cemetery Association, a private group, has operated this tract, although the land remains the property of the city. The board of directors of the association consists of women only, as provided in the original by-laws.
The cemetery is characterised by tree-lined streets, large monuments and angels.
Notable burials
Oakwood Cemetery (Austin, Texas)
Oakwood Cemetery, originally called City Cemetery, is the oldest city-owned cemetery in Austin, Texas. Situated on a hill just east of I-35 that overlooks downtown Austin, just north of the Swedish Hill Historic District and south of Disch-Falk Field, the once-isolated site is now in the center of the city.
History
The cemetery dates from the mid-1850s. It may have begun even earlier, as legend states that its first tenants were victims of a Comanche attack whose bodies were laid to rest on the same hill.
The cemetery was renamed Oakwood in 1907 per city ordinance. It spreads over 40 acres (160,000 m2), including an annex across Comal Street to the east, and includes sections historically dedicated to the city's black, Latino, and Jewish populations. Paupers were historically buried in unmarked graves on the cemetery's south side. Graves without permanent markers were subject to reburial after a given period.
The cemetery became a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1972 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985; its annex was added on October 30, 2003. Despite its protected status, the cemetery has been subject to crime, vandalism, and decay for decades.
