Oak Dale Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker at Oak Dale Cemetery has to say, and friend, this one starts the way the best Texas stories always do: with people arriving somewhere new and making their mark on the land. The year was 1867, and the founders of the Oak Dale community began coming in. John R.

Pickard. George Lidia, who would become Pickard's son-in-law. The Reverend James M.

Johnson, a Methodist minister. And William Jasper Mefferd. These men brought their families with them, including Johnson's four sons, and together they got to work.

They harvested timber along the Bosque River to build their cabins, and they began farming the land. Now, you want to know where the name Oak Dale came from? Samuel Johnson looked around at all those trees filling up the landscape and called it Oak Dale, for the abundance of trees in the area.

Simple as that, and true as the timber. By 1868, the community already carried grief. The wives of both John Pickard and James Johnson were interred right there on Pickard's land.

Their graves are now unmarked, their names swallowed by time. That is the weight that sits underneath this whole story. But the cemetery kept its record, and the first marked burial belongs to Ruth Ann Johnson, two days old, who died in 1877.

Two days. You let that settle a moment before you move on. Oak Dale grew into a real community.

There was a school, Oak Dale School, serving local residents until it consolidated with Stephenville in 1951. There was a Baptist church. There was a Methodist church.

Both stood until the mid-twentieth century, when they likewise made their way to the county seat. One by one, the anchors of the settlement shifted toward town. The community itself began to decline in population during the Great Depression and World War II.

The people thinned out. The institutions moved on. But the cemetery remained, and it remains today, a link to everything that came before.

Generations of area residents rest here, including military veterans of conflicts dating all the way back to the Civil War. Oak Dale Cemetery is the land's long memory, keepin' the names of those early families even when the cabins and the churches and the schoolhouse are gone. That is what a cemetery does, when it does its job right.

What the marker says

Founders of Oak Dale community began arriving in 1867. They included: John R. Pickard; George Lidia, who became Pickard's son-in-law; the Rev. James M. Johnson, a Methodist minister; and William Jasper Mefferd. These men and their families, including Johnson's four sons, harvested timber along the Bosque River to build cabins and began farming the land. Samuel Johnson chose Oak Dale as the settlement's name for the abundance of the trees in the area. By 1868, the wives of both John Pickard and James Johnson were interred here on Pickard's land; the graves are now unmarked. The first marked burial is that of two-day-old Ruth Ann Johnson (d. 1877). Local residents established Oak Dale School, which consolidated with Stephenville in 1951. There were also a Baptist church and a Methodist church until the mid-20th century, when they likewise moved to the county seat. Today, Oak Dale Cemetery is a link to the early settlement, which began to decline in population during the Great Depression and World War II. It is the final resting place of generations of area residents, including military veterans of conflicts dating to the Civil War. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2004