Selman-Roark Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's the story as the official marker tells it, in my own words. In 1834, a surveyor named William Roark packed up his family in Tennessee and brought them to Texas. William was born in 1803, and he'd go on to leave his mark on this land in more ways than one before he died in 1862.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. By around 1837 or 1838, this little patch of East Texas soil had already begun to hold the people he loved. His mother Nancy, who carried the maiden name Chambliss, was buried there.

So was his brother Napoleon. The ground was already becoming something more than ground. Now here's where it gets interesting.

In 1838, three people, Joseph, Delila, and James H. Durst, deeded that one-half-acre graveyard to William Roark himself. The land was his to keep, his to tend, his to carry forward.

And carry it forward he did. Years passed, the way they do in Texas, slow and then all at once. In 1855, William's daughter Elizabeth married a man named Benjamin Franklin Selman, and with that union, the place took on a new name.

People started calling it the Selman-Roark Cemetery, and that name stuck like clay after a hard rain. The community of Linwood grew up around it, and more and more families began laying their own in that same consecrated ground. Then in 1861, a Roark descendant stepped up and deeded an additional eight-tenths of an acre adjoining the original cemetery, giving the burial ground room to hold all the stories still to come.

What started as a half-acre of grief became something the whole community could call its own.

What the marker says

In 1834 surveyor William Roark (1803-1862) and his family came to Texas from Tennessee. Roark's mother Nancy (Chambliss) and brother Napoleon were buried in the one-half-acre graveyard about 1837-38. Joseph, Delila and James H. Durst deeded this cemetery to Roark in 1838. Roark's daughter Elizabeth married Benjamin Franklin Selman in 1855 and the site became known as "Selman-Roark Cemetery". As Linwood community grew, more families used the burial ground. In 1861 a Roark descendant deeded an additional 0.8 acre adjoining the cemetery.