DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Oxford Cemetery, out in Llano County. Now, every good story starts somewhere, and this one starts in 1880, when a Confederate veteran by the name of A. J.
Johnson came riding into Llano County and laid out a townsite. Just like that — a community called Oxford, planted in the Texas Hill Country by one man's intention. The very next year, 1881, the families of Oxford set aside a burial ground near this very site.
A place for the community's own. The earliest grave markers date from 1883, though some of the graves were moved from a neighboring cemetery, and a few of those bear death dates that reach back even further than that. So the ground here holds more history than it first lets on.
Among those resting in Oxford Cemetery is the town's founder himself, A. J. Johnson, born 1832, died 1912.
He laid out the town, and in the end the town gave him a place to lay down too. But there's another name in this ground that carries its own considerable weight. James R.
Moss, born 1843, died 1924. James R. Moss captained the Packsaddle Mountain fight — an 1873 battle that drove raiding Indians out of Llano County.
Think on that. The man who helped shape the fate of this county in 1873 is buried in the quiet of this small community cemetery, in ground that wasn't even set aside until years after that fight was already legend. Oxford may be a name that doesn't ring loud across Texas history.
But the men resting here? They rang plenty loud when it counted.
What the marker says
The Oxford community was founded in 1880 when Confederate veteran A. J. Johnson came to Llano County and laid out the townsite. In 1881, a burial ground was established near this site for the use of the families of Oxford. Burials date from 1883, although some of the graves that were moved from a neighboring cemetery bear earlier death dates. Among those interred there are the town's founder, A. J. Johnson (1832-1912); and James R. Moss (1843-1924), who captained the Packsaddle Mountain fight, an 1873 battle that drove raiding Indians out of Llano County. (1985)