Oakwood Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Oakwood Cemetery in Comanche County. Now settle in, because this one starts with a boundary line and ends with generations of souls laid to rest beneath some very fine oak trees. In 1858, the state reconfigured Comanche County, and that reconfiguration set something in motion.

The county seat needed to move. So in 1859, a local land developer by the name of Captain John Duncan stepped forward and donated two hundred acres right here, offering it up as a townsite to serve as the new Comanche County seat. Now Duncan wasn't just being generous without conditions.

His deed specified, plain as day, that sufficient portions of that donated acreage had to be set aside for a graveyard, for churches, and for schools. A man thinking about the living and the dead both at once. From those two hundred acres, a cemetery of about five and a half acres was established.

It was named Oakwood, and the marker tells us exactly why: impressive oak trees graced the site. Some names just fit. The earliest marked grave belongs to one-year-old John Neely, who died in January of 1861.

A life barely begun, recorded there in stone before the ground had hardly been broken for any of the rest. Since its establishment, the cemetery has been the property of the City of Comanche, serving the community as a graveyard across all the years that followed. In 1895, parcels of land originally owned by John Duncan and conveyed to William and Sue Martin, she born a Shortridge, were added to the grounds.

And over time, the burial rolls grew into something that tells the whole sweep of this corner of Texas. Veterans of conflicts ranging from the Republic of Texas era all the way to the present rest here, including both Union and Confederate soldiers from the Civil War, those two sides lying in the same Comanche County soil. Pioneers of the area are here.

Their descendants are here. State and national politicians, local civic leaders, members of various fraternal organizations. All of them gathered beneath those oaks that gave this place its name.

That's the thing about a cemetery like Oakwood. It starts with a deed and a developer and a donated piece of land, and it quietly becomes the truest record a community has of itself.

What the marker says

Reconfiguration of Comanche County by the state in 1858 led to a relocation of its county seat. In 1859 local land developer Captain John Duncan donated 200 acres here for a townsite to served as Comanche County seat. Duncan's deed specified that sufficient portions of the donated acreage be set aside for a graveyard, churches, and schools. A cemetery consisting of about 5.5 acres was established and named Oakwood for the impressive oak trees which graced the site. The earliest marked grave is that of one-year-old John Neely, who died in January 1861. Since its establishment the cemetery has been the property of the City of Comanche and has served as a community graveyard. Parcels of land originally owned by John Duncan and conveyed to William and Sue (Shortridge) Martin in 1895 were added to the interments of numerous veterans of conflicts ranging from the Republic of Texas era to the present, including both Union and Confederate soldiers from the Civil War. Also buried here are pioneers of this area and their descendants, state and national politicians, local civic leaders, and members of various fraternal organizations. (1994)