DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker at Oakland Cemetery has to say — so let's ride with it. In 1891, a man named O.S. Riggen had a vision.
He purchased sixty acres in rural Dallas County, outside the city limits, with the idea of establishing what they called a rural garden cemetery. Now, Riggen was persuasive — he succeeded in interesting others to join the venture. But here's the thing about some visions: the man who sees them clearest doesn't always live to see them through.
Riggen died that same year. Eighteen ninety-one. His dream, still unbuilt.
But the vision didn't die with him. That same year, Oakland Cemetery Company incorporated. And in 1892, they moved fast.
They purchased sixty acres each from Z.E. Coombes and W.B. Gano, sixty more from W.H.
Lewis, and sixty more still from Joe Weil and W.N. Coe. All told, one hundred and eighty acres of Dallas County ground set aside for the long rest.
To make sense of all that land, they brought in a landscape architect by the name of Benjamin Grove — born in 1823, and still workin' his craft well into his years. Grove designed and mapped one hundred and twenty of the cemetery's one hundred and eighty acres. A man who lived long enough to leave a real mark on the earth.
The first lot sold went to a man named John McCoy, purchased on November 11th, 1892, for his wife, Mary Alice McCoy. McCoy didn't stop there — he also had six family members reinterred at Oakland. That's a man who wanted his people together.
Over the years, Oakland Cemetery Company sold and acquired land, and the borders got redrawn more than once. Nothing stays tidy forever. The company eventually dissolved, and in 1924, the Oakland Cemetery Lot Owners Association — OCLOA — was incorporated as a non-profit to carry things forward.
Now, when you start talkin' about who's buried out here, the list gets long and it gets serious. Five Dallas mayors rest in this ground: Henry Ervay, Winship C. Connor, Franklin Pierce Holland, William Meredith Holland, and Louis Blaylock.
Lieutenant Governor Barnett Gibbs — known to his friends as Barney — is here. So are U.S. Representatives Edwin le Roy Antony and James Andrew Beall.
These weren't bit players. These were people who shaped early Texas and early Dallas. And then there are the monuments.
Walk through Oakland and you'll come across an obelisk for J.F. Strickland — a Texas interurban builder — that rises forty-two feet and seven inches into the sky. You don't miss it.
There's also a memorial of Georgian marble for Louis A. Pires, philanthropist and senior director of City National Bank of Dallas. Stone and marble, tellin' stories in their own quiet way.
Among the twenty-seven thousand interments — twenty-seven thousand — you'll find gravestones marked with the symbols of fraternal orders: Masons, Shriners, Knights of Pythias, Woodmen of the World. Brotherhood carved right into the stone. O.S.
Riggen bought sixty acres with a vision and didn't live to see a single headstone set. Today, twenty-seven thousand souls are resting on ground that grew from that vision. Sometimes a man plants something he'll never sit in the shade of.
Oakland Cemetery is proof that the planting still matters.
What the marker says
In 1891, O.S. Riggen (1852-1891) purchased 60 acres in rural Dallas County, outside the city limits, with the vision to establish a rural garden cemetery. Riggen succeeded in interesting others to join the venture, but died before his vision could materialize. That same year, Oakland Cemetery Company incorporated and, in 1892, purchased 60 acres each from Z.E. Coombes and W.B. Gano; W.H. Lewis; and Joe Weil and W.N. Coe. Landscape architect Benjamin Grove (1823-1915) designed and mapped 120 of the cemetery’s 180 acres. John McCoy purchased the first lot for his wife, Mary Alice McCoy, on November 11, 1892. McCoy also had six family members reinterred here. Oakland Cemetery Company sold and acquired land, causing the borders to be redrawn several times. The company dissolved and Oakland Cemetery Lot Owners Association (OCLOA) was incorporated as a non-profit in 1924. Notable burials include those of Dallas Mayors Henry Ervay (1834-1911), Winship C. Connor (1849-1921), Franklin Pierce Holland (1852-1928), William Meredith Holland (1875-1966), and Louis Blaylock (1849-1932), Lieutenant Governor Barnett “Barney” Gibbs (1850-1904), U.S. Representatives Edwin le Roy Antony (1852-1913) and James Andrew Beall (1866-1929). The site contains several impressive monuments and gravestones, including an obelisk measuring 42 feet 7 inches for J.F. Strickland, a Texas interurban builder, and a memorial of Georgian marble for Louis A. Pires, philanthropist and senior director of City National Bank of Dallas. Amongst the 27,000 interments are numerous gravestones with fraternal markings, such as Masons, Shriners, Knights of Pythias, and Woodmen of the World. Today, the cemetery serves as a reminder of early Dallas and the final resting place of generations of citizens. Historic Texas Cemetery – 2022