Oakland Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Oakland Cemetery, out in Comanche County. Now settle in, because this one's got roots that go deep. Real deep, like the live oaks that gave this place its name.

The Oakland community started takin' shape in the early 1860s, and those oaks were abundant enough that nobody had to think too hard about what to call the place. The settlement grew, families arrived, and life in that corner of Comanche County began to take hold. One of the people who helped hold it together was a man named H.

S. Anglin. Folks called him Brother Anglin, and that tells you something right there.

He married Sarah Frances Weaver in 1872, and the two of them moved to Oakland in 1875. Now Brother Anglin was a circuit riding Methodist minister, and if you know anything about circuit riders, you know they didn't sit still. While he was building the church in Oakland with his own effort, he was also serving nine other churches in the nearby communities.

Nine. That's a man who had more ground to cover than most people would attempt, and he covered it. For a while, though, Oakland had no place to bury its dead.

That changed in May of 1891, when a man named Willey N. Burleson passed on and became the first soul laid to rest on this site. Three months later, H.

S. and Sarah Anglin took action. They deeded the two acres where the church and burial ground stood to church trustees, so the cemetery could serve not just Oakland, but the surrounding communities of Sipe Springs, Duster, Beattie, and Gorman. That's a gift with reach.

Then in 1907, the Anglins gave again. This time they conveyed two more acres to cemetery trustees D. N.

Burleson, L. C. Echols, and T.

J. Munn and their successors. Brother Anglin and Sarah had spent decades pouring themselves into this ground, literally and figuratively.

Sarah Weaver Anglin died in 1928. H. S.

Anglin died in 1931. And both of them, the circuit rider and the woman who traveled this road alongside him, are interred right there in the Oakland Cemetery they helped build and deed and grow. The families buried here read like a roll call of Comanche County pioneer life.

Anglin, Brooks, Couch, Dennis, Dukes, Echols, Foote, Hadaway, Hamlin, Hasley, Little, Munn, Poyner, Sexton, Sutton, Underwood. Names that echo across generations of this place. And among all those graves, more than forty veterans of World War I and World War II rest here too.

That's not a small number for a country cemetery. That's a community that answered when it was called. The Oakland Cemetery Association organized in 1976 to keep watch over all of it, and by 1998 the burial ground had grown to five acres, still serving Oakland and the communities around it.

What started as two acres deeded by a circuit rider and his wife became something enduring. The marker calls it a record of the pioneers of Comanche County, and that's exactly right. Every name in that ground is a chapter.

Brother Anglin just made sure there'd be a place to keep them.

What the marker says

Settlement of Oakland community, which was named for the abundant live oak trees in the area, began in the early 1860s. H. S. Anglin and Sarah Frances Weaver were married in 1872, and they moved to Oakland in 1875. Brother Anglin, as H. S. was known, was a circuit riding Methodist minister who built the church in Oakland while also serving nine churches in nearby communitites. The first burial on this site took place in May 1891 upon the death of Willey N. Burleson. Three months later H. S. and Sarah Anglin deeded the two acres on which the church and burial gound were located to church trustees to serve Oakland and the surrounding communities of Sipe Springs, Duster, Beattie and Gorman. In 1907 the Anglins conveyed two more acres of land to cemetery trustees D. N. Burleson, L. C. Echols and T. J. Munn and their successors. Sarah Weaver Anglin died in 1928 and H. S. Anglin died in 1931; both are interred in the Oakland Cemetery. Others buried here incude members of the Anglin, Brooks, Couch, Dennis, Dukes, Echols, Foote, Hadaway, Hamlin, Hasley, Little, Munn, Poyner, Sexton, Sutton and Underwood families. The Oakland Cemetery Association was organized in 1976. By 1998 the burial ground occupied five acres. The graves include those of more than 40 veterans of World War I and World War II. The cemetery continues to serve Oakland and the surrounding communities and remains a record of the pioneers of Comanche County. (1999)