Oakland Memorial Park

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll pass it straight along to you. Back in 1873, Terrell got its start as a railroad town, and it didn't take long for the folks who settled there to reckon that a town needs more than tracks and ambition. It needs a place to lay its people to rest.

So they set about finding one. Five years on, in 1878, a man named James R. Terrell (and the marker makes a point of getting that right, first name James, not John) sold seven acres of land for use as a community cemetery.

Seven acres. Enough ground to hold a town's worth of memories. The first burials were those of Peter Meinenger and Dr.

G. W. Ridgell, two names now fixed forever at the very beginning of that long, quiet ledger.

Years passed. Decades rolled through. And in 1925, the Oakland Cemetery Association was founded, its whole purpose being perpetual care for the gravesites; somebody had to tend to the place, and now somebody would, in perpetuity.

By 1931, the grounds took the name they carry today: Oakland Memorial Park. Now, who rests there? That's where the story deepens.

Among the buried is Frank Reaugh, a professional artist. And then (and you want to slow down here) twenty members of the British Royal Air Force. Twenty young men, killed while in training at Terrell during World War II.

They came all the way from Britain to a railroad town in Kaufman County, Texas, to learn to fly, and they never made it home. Those twenty graves sit in Oakland Memorial Park to this day, a long way from Britain, tended by a community that never forgot them. Seven acres.

A name corrected. Twenty airmen. That's what this ground holds.

What the marker says

After Terrell was established as a railroad town in 1873, its citizens saw the need for a community burial ground. In 1878 John R. Terrell sold 7 acres of land for use as a cemetery, and the first burials were those of Peter Meinenger and Dr. G. W. Ridgell. In 1925 the Oakland Cemetery Association was founded to provide perpetual care for the gravesites. The name Oakland Memorial Park was adopted in 1931. Among those buried here are professional artist Frank Reaugh and 20 members of the British Royal Air Force who were killed while in training at Terrell during World War II. (1983) SUPPLEMENTAL PLAQUE: Correction James R. Terrell sold the land for the cemetery.