Live Oak Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in Falls County, there's a place called Live Oak, and if you blink driving through, you might miss what's left of it. Which, truth be told, is mostly what's underground.

But let's back up, because this little patch of Texas had itself quite a run. The community got its start shortly after the Civil War, though it didn't always go by Live Oak. First it was Camden.

Then Rupee. Names have a way of wandering out here. Whatever you called it, the settlement had real ambition: stores, a cotton gin, a post office, doctors, and a Masonic lodge.

That's not a crossroads, that's a town with opinions. The Live Oak Baptist Church came together in the early 1870s, and the congregation didn't wait around for a fine building. They worshipped in a log cabin, and that same log cabin doubled as the schoolhouse.

Practical people, these Falls County pioneers. Now, the land under that church, the school, and the cemetery where we're standing today, that land was donated by two brothers, George and E. R.

Hodges. They were the sons of Homer Hodges, one of the pioneer settlers of the area, and the Hodges name is written all through this ground. The earliest marked graves date from 1877, and two of them carry names that have survived nearly a century and a half: Ida May and Mary T.

Just those names, just those stones. E. R.

Hodges himself, born in 1840, died in 1905, rests here along with members of his family. So does Pinkney Pulaski Hodges, born 1813, died 1895, and his descendants. And community leaders J.

J. Hodges, who died in 1918, and his son Bradley, who died in 1961. The Vinson and Jordan families, pioneer names both, have their people here too.

For a while, Live Oak looked like it had a future. Then the 1890s arrived, and the rail lines arrived with them, except not here. The lines went elsewhere, bypassed this community entirely, and that was the beginning of the end.

The Baptist Church closed. The school was consolidated into the Lott district. The stores and the gin and the post office, all of it faded.

And now the Live Oak Cemetery is what remains. The whole story of an agricultural settlement, compressed into marked stones and family names going back to 1877. Camden, Rupee, Live Oak.

The name that stuck is the one carved into the cemetery gate, which may be the most honest thing a place can do.

What the marker says

The pioneer Falls County community of Live Oak began shortly after the Civil War. Originally known as Camden and later as Rupee, the settlement was the site of stores, a cotton gin, post office, doctors and a Masonic lodge. The Live Oak Baptist Church was established in the early 1870s. A log cabin served as the sanctuary and was also used as a schoolhouse. Land for the church, school and this community cemetery was donated by brothers George and E. R. Hodges, sons of pioneer area settler Homer Hodges. The earliest marked graves in the burial ground date from 1877 and are inscribed with the names Ida May and Mary T. Other graves here include those of E. R. Hodges (1840-1905) and members of his family; Pinkney Pulaski Hodges (1813-1895) and his descendants; prominent community leaders J. J. Hodges (d. 1918) and his son Bradley (d. 1961); and members of the pioneer Vinson and Jordan families. Live Oak began to decline in the 1890s when the area was bypassed by rail lines. The Baptist Church closed and the school was consolidated with the Lott district. Only the pioneer Live Oak Cemetery remains to mark the site of the early agricultural settlement.