Oakes Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Oakes Cemetery, out here in Limestone County. Now settle in, because this one starts before the cemetery even had a name. The first burials here were Mary C.

Justice, laid to rest in 1861, and Roland Pair, who followed in 1865. Two souls in the ground before the land had any particular story attached to it. That story would have to wait for a family to arrive.

And arrive they did. John Collins Oakes and his wife Winnie, born a Radford, packed up their family in Perry County, Alabama and made their way to Texas in the years following the Civil War. They put down roots, they worked the land, and they prospered as landowners and farmers.

This patch of Texas became theirs. John Oakes died in 1876. The land kept going.

Winnie kept going. And in 1891, she did something that took a certain kind of deliberate intention. She formally set aside the graveyard.

Not left it to chance, not let it quietly continue. She made it official. She drew a line around it and said: this place matters.

From that moment on, Oakes family descendants and others in the community have helped keep it. They expanded the site in 1950, and somewhere along the way they relocated the former Sanders Creek Church chapel from the Fairoaks community, bringing it here to serve funerals, meetings, and other gatherings, including an annual memorial service that continues to draw people back. A non-profit corporation now provides support for the cemetery's care, so the work Winnie started doesn't fall through the cracks of time.

Walk among the graves and you'll find the names Bond, Justice, Little, Martin, Morton, Oakes, Reed, Turner, and other longtime community families, generations of neighbors sharing the same quiet ground. The older sections tell you something about the customs of the people who dug those first graves. Curbed plots edged in stone, obelisks reaching upward, other vertical tombstones standing at attention.

And then there are the inscriptions on the markers themselves, where the hopes and the faith and the family ties of the people buried here found their way into words carved in stone. That's a detail worth slowing down for. Somebody chose those words.

Somebody wanted them to last. Oakes Cemetery is still in use today, still receiving the community's dead, still tended by people who understand what Winnie Oakes understood back in 1891. Some things are worth the trouble of keeping.

What the marker says

This cemetery began with the burials of Mary C. Justice (d. 1861) and Roland Pair (d. 1865). It is located on land later owned by John Collins Oakes and his wife Winnie (Radford), who migrated here from Perry County, Alabama in the years following the Civil War with their family and prospered as landowners and farmers. John Oakes died in 1876, and in 1891, Winnie formally set aside the graveyard. Since then, Oakes family descendants and others in the community have helped maintain the site, expanding it in 1950 and relocating the former Sanders Creek Church chapel from Fairoaks community to be used for funerals, meetings and other gatherings, including an annual memorial service. A non-profit corporation now provides support for the cemetery's care. Graves include those of the Bond, Justice, Little, Martin, Morton, Oakes, Reed, Turner and other longtime community families. Early funereal customs are evidenced by the use of curbed plots and the presence of obelisks and other vertical tombstones. The hopes, faith and family ties of those interred here are reflected in the inscriptions. Still in use, Oakes Cemetery serves as an important reminder of the area's pioneer heritage. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2004