DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells this story, and I'm just here to pass it along the way Duane does — with the respect it deserves and maybe a little Texas wind at its back. Now, most cemeteries will tell you they hold history. This one will prove it.
Back in July of 1871, a man named John Toliver deeded a tract of land to Columbus Lodge No. 51 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. The purpose was simple and solemn: a cemetery. What that ground would go on to hold, though — that's anything but simple.
Among the very first to be interred there were victims of the 1873 yellow fever epidemic. One of them was George W. Smith — district judge, Texas Supreme Court justice — laid to rest in soil that was barely broken.
That's where this place began. Not quietly, not gently. With an epidemic and a judge.
But the land itself had opinions. Within a few years, a bluff on the south side of the cemetery started to erode. Graves were being exposed.
By 1888, a committee was appointed to take preventative measures. They worked fast — but not fast enough. The grave of Henry Middleton, who had died that same year of 1888, was washed out before their efforts could hold the ground in place.
Some losses you cannot outrun, no matter the committee. The Odd Fellows sold the cemetery to the newly formed Columbus Cemetery Association in 1890, and the association added land in 1901. Then came 1913, and a devastating flood.
In the aftermath, many stones — including those of the Dick family — were relocated from the Old City Cemetery to higher ground here in the Odd Fellows Rest. The dead, moved to safer ground. That's a sentence that takes a moment to settle.
Among the many burials of note, there was J. W. E.
Wallace, a founder of Columbus himself, whose grave was eventually moved to the State Cemetery in Austin. And then there were Robert and John Stafford — prominent Columbus businessmen — who died as a result of a feud. That feud also involved a deputy sheriff named Larkin S.
Hope and his uncle, Sheriff J. "Light" Townsend. Larkin S. Hope is interred here.
A feud that tangled lawmen and businessmen and left its mark on this very ground. Wells Thompson, a Texas state senator and lieutenant governor, rests here too. So do local poets and historians.
And veterans — veterans of the Civil War, the U.S. War with Mexico, the Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, and other international wars and conflicts. This cemetery has been receiving the county's soldiers and its storytellers for a long, long time.
More land was added in 1977, and at the dawn of the 21st century, the Columbus Odd Fellows Rest Cemetery continues to serve the city of Columbus. The marker calls it a chronicle of the history and pride of Colorado County. Standing out there among those stones — the ones that eroded, the ones that flooded, the ones that were moved and the ones that stayed — I'd say that's exactly right.
Some places just hold more than dirt.
What the marker says
John Toliver deeded a tract of land to Columbus Lodge No. 51, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in July 1871 for use as a cemetery. Among the first to be interred here were victims of the 1873 yellow fever epidemic, including George W. Smith, district judge and Texas Supreme Court justice. Within a few years, a bluff on the south side began to erode, exposing some graves. In 1888 a committee was appointed to take preventative measures. The grave of Henry Middleton (d. 1888) was washed out before their efforts were successful. The Odd Fellows sold the cemetery to the newly formed Columbus Cemetery Association in 1890. The association added land in 1901. Many stones, such as those of the Dick family, were relocated from the Old City Cemetery to higher ground in the Odd Fellows Rest Cemetery after a devastating flood in 1913. Among the many burials of note in the Odd Fellows Rest Cemetery was that of J. W. E. Wallace, a Columbus founder, whose grave was moved to the State Cemetery in Austin. Robert and John Stafford, prominent Columbus businessmen, died as a result of a feud which also involved deputy sheriff Larkin S. Hope and his uncle, Sheriff J. "Light" Townsend. Hope is interred here. Wells Thompson was a Texas state senator and lieutenant governor. Others include local poets and historians, as well as veterans of the Civil War, the U. S. War with Mexico, Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, and other international wars and conflicts. More land was added to the cemetery in 1977. It continues to serve the city of Columbus at the dawn of the 21st century. The Columbus Odd Fellows Rest Cemetery is a chronicle of the history and pride of Colorado County. (2000)