The Oakland Cemetery is a historic cemetery in Dallas, Texas, United States. It originally stood on 180 acres in rural Dallas County 1.5 miles southeast of the county court house when it opened in 1892. Economic problems, court judgements, land sales and acquisitions altered the cemetery to approximately 48 acres by 1969. About 27,000 people have selected Oakland Cemetery as the burial location for themselves and/or their family members. Burials include many prominent politicians, educators, physicians, ministers, business leaders, military service members, ancestors of famous individuals and ordinary citizens. The cemetery has a number of interesting memorials, sculptures and vaults. Mount Auburn pauper cemetery, owned by the city of Dallas, a Dallas county pauper cemetery (Rest Haven), and Opportunity Park, a city of Dallas public park border Oakland Cemetery. A Confederate cemetery, cared for by the city of Dallas Parks Department, is nearby.
History The Oakland Cemetery was built on land which Thomas Lagow was awarded for emigrating to Texas before March 2, 1836. He received a First-Class Headright of a league and labor (4,605.50 acres) from Republic of Texas in 1841. After his death in 1844, 1,000 acres were deeded to Lagow's father-in-law, Armstead Bennett (1785–1859). Bennett's son-in-law and daughter, Daniel and Judith (Bennett) Parker, sold 680 acres to Nathaniel C. Floyd (1796–1870) in 1854.Dallas County, Texas, Deeds. D:524–525 Daniel Parker and Judith (Bennett) Parker, to N. C Floyd, 26 October 1854. Floyd divided the land into 19 blocks which his probate distributed to his wife and three daughters.Dallas County (Texas) Deeds, N:321–324 N C Floyd, decd to Susan U Floyd et al 22 October 1870 The land as covered with trees which Floyd used to describe in the division of the land: post oak, blackjack oak, Spanish oak, American elm, mulberry, ash, pecan, hackberry, burr oak, and honey locust trees.
Oliver Perry Bowser and William Henry Lemmon, real estate brokers, purchased over 232 acres from N. C. Floyd's daughters in 1888.Dallas County, Texas, Deeds. 91:11–13 Susan A [Floyd] Good and husband to Oliver Perry Bowser and William Henry Lemmon, 13 March 1888. O. S. Riggen purchased 30 acres that comprise NW 1/2 of Block 4 of the Floyd estate from Bowser and Lemmon with the idea of establishing a cemetery outside the city limits.Dallas County Deed Book 144:155 O P Bowser and W H Lemmon to O S Riggen, 1 May 1891. Dallas County Deed Book 145:69 O P Bowser and W H Lemmon to O S Riggen, 12 May 1891. Dallas County Deed Book 145:71 O P Bowser and W H Lemmon to O S Riggen 12 May 1891. The Rules and Regulations of the Oakland Cemetery Company, published in 1892, credits Riggen with beginning the effort to establish a rural, garden cemetery in Dallas County.Oakland Cemetery Company, Dallas, Texas Rules and Regulations of the Oakland Cemetery Company, adopted 21 November 1892 accessed Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin 6 July 2021. His death in 1891 caused his 30 acres to be sold to Joseph Weil. Others followed adding 120 more acres to the project. The final acquisition consisted of Blocks 1, 3, and 4, each approximately 567.5 square varas (about 60 acres) in an L shape.
Oakland Cemetery Company On 6 June 1891, the Texas Secretary of State approved the incorporation of Oakland Cemetery Company.Biennial Report of the Report of the Secretary of State of the State of Texas, 1895. Table: "Miscellaneous Charters filed from December 20, 1871 to the date of this report." James. C. O’Connor, John S. Armstrong, B. Blankenship, Thomas J. Oliver, James Moroney, William H. Lewis, William N. Coe, and John P. Murphy were directors of the company. On 24 September 1892, they elected J. P. Murphy, President; T. J. Oliver, Vice President; and C. B. Gillespie, Secretary/Treasurer. In August 1892, William H. Lewis, Zachariah E. Coombes & William B. Gano, Joseph Weil and William N. Coe sold The Oakland Cemetery Company a total of 180 acres of the N. C. Floyd Estate that they acquired through various transactions with O.P. Bowser, W. H. Lemmon and others.
The Oakland Cemetery Company Board dedicated the 180 acres for the purpose of a cemetery.Dallas County Deed Book 158:628–630, Board of Oakland Cemetery Company. December 10, 1892. The company hired J. B. Buchanan as superintendent and landscape gardener. Benjamin Grove, a cemetery engineer, from Louisville, Kentucky, produced a design in the style of a rural, garden cemetery similar to Mount Auburn Cemetery near Boston."Oakland Cemetery. A Sacred Resting Place Whose Beauty Suggests the Eternal." Dallas Morning News, 11 June 1893, p. 12 accessed GenealogyBank, 21 July 2021. The land that the cemetery company acquired was L-shaped, consisting of Blocks 1, 3 and 4 of the Floyd estate. "The spot was covered with a thick growth of trees." While old oak trees were kept, landscape gardeners added rose bushes and graveled pathways to the land. Groves submitted a plan for a total of 120 acres of the 180 acres which then became the official plat of the cemetery which the cemetery association filed with the county.
The Oakland Cemetery Company, in an 1899 lot owners meeting, said that "the grounds shall be limited exclusively to the purchasers respectively of lots therein; and that 25 per cent of the sum received in the sale of each and every lot in all time to come shall be, and is hereby set apart and made a perpetual fund, to be loaned upon the best securities by three trustees, one to be selected by the company and two by the lot-owners: and the interest received there form devoted to the care and keeping of the grounds, graves, etc..""Notice of Cemetery Lot Owners' Meeting," Dallas Morning News, March 22, 1899, p. 10.
"Can't Mortgage Cemeteries" – finances and court cases Several court cases arose when the Oakland Cemetery Company borrowed from various banks and individuals in the 1890s. American National Bank and others sued the company and its officers for failure to pay debts.14th District Court Cases #12,720 and #17,058 manuscripts of court minutes in Dallas History and Archives Division of the Dallas Public Library. The district court charged the county sheriff or constable to sell cemetery property. The county sheriff sold 30 acres each to E. O. Tenison and Guy Sumpter who six months later conveyed the property to the newly formed People's Cemetery Association. Both the Oakland Cemetery Company and the People's Cemetery Association sold burial lots in the cemetery. The Oakland Cemetery Company appealed. The case was eventually brought to the Texas Supreme Court which ruled that land dedicated for a cemetery could not be sold to resolve a debt.Texas Reports, Cases Adjudged in The Supreme Court to the Close of The Term Ending June, 1900. Reported by A. E. Wilkinson, Vol. 93, p. 569. The State of Texas, 1900. The Dallas Morning News summed up the results with the headline “Can't Mortgage Cemeteries.”Dallas Morning News (Dallas, Texas), June 1, 1900, p. 4
Land sales, acquisitions, change in ownership Burials only occurred in Floyd's Block 1. Oakland Cemetery Company sold various parcels from Block 3 and 4. Later, the company purchased additional land on the northwest side of the cemetery.Dallas County (Texas) Deed Book 680:75–76, T L Camp to Oakland Cemetery Company, 1 June 1916. In 1926, the Oakland Cemetery Company was dissolved and replaced by the Oakland Lot Owners Association. Of the land originally acquired from the Nathaniel C. Floyd estate, only Block 1 remained in the cemetery. Oakland Cemetery Company sold the 55.28 acres of the cemetery to Oakland Cemetery Lot Owners Association.Dallas County (Texas) Deed Book 1280:125–127. Oakland Cemetery Company to Oakland Cemetery Lot Owners, 18 January 1926. A trust fund for maintenance costs was established.
Oakland Cemetery Lot Owners sold 9.125 acres on the southeast line to the City of Dallas for Opportunity Park in 1969.The deed stated that "there have been no burials in this portion of the cemetery and that no lots or burial rights were every conveyed out of Oakland Cemetery Lot Owners' Association, Incorporated, to any person, in this section of the cemetery."Dallas County (Texas) Deed Book 69169:1750–1754 Oakland Cemetery Lot Owners to City of Dallas, 29 August 1969. The land was part of the NE 1/2 of the SE 1/2 part of Block 1 of the Floyd estate.
Cemetery sections The cemetery is laid out in sections containing lots and sections containing tiers (rows). Besides family plots and individual graves, Oakland Cemetery Company rules and regulations stated that it would "supply ample grounds for societies and religious denominations; and when such organization have chosen a part of the cemetery, it would be well for them to select an appropriate name for it." Three sections exist today: Elks Rest, (Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks), Woodmen of the World, and Texas Graduate Nurses Association. The Texas Graduate Nurses Association sold much of their section to Oakland Cemetery Lot Owners in 1997.Dallas County Deed Book 97062 pp. 04642–04644, Texas Graduate Nurses Association to Oakland Cemetery Lot Owners Association, 11 March 1997
There are markers for Masons, Shriners, Knights Templar, Order of Eastern Star, Knights of Pythias, Fraternal Order of Eagles, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and International Association of Rebecca Assemblies, Woodmen of the World and Sons of Hermann. through the cemetery. There are a few Daughters of the American Revolution, Sons of the American Revolution, United Confederate Veterans and Grand Army of the Republic symbols on markers in the cemetery.
Dallas County Deed Book 172 was created especially to record the sale of lots. The first recorded sale was to John Milton McCoy. He purchased all of Lot 1, Section 2 (845 square feet).Dallas County Deed Book 172:2 Oakland Cemetery Company to John M. McCoy, purchased 18 April 1893; filed 17 May 1893. The first burial was that of John M.'s wife, Mrs May Alice Peel McCoy, in 1892. In June 1893 he had six members of his family removed from Masonic Cemetery in Dallas and reinterred in Oakland Cemetery. These were his uncle, John Calvin McCoy, Cora McDermett McCoy, wife of John C., Eliza McCoy, Cora McCoy Grimes, and J. C. Taggart. Odd S Riggen, the man credited with the first purchase of land on which to Oakland Cemetery was built, died before it opened. He and his wife, who predeceased him, were initially interred in Greenwood Cemetery. They were removed to Oakland Cemetery in May 1893.
There is a pet section in the Oakland cemetery. A rumor says that a horse and a monkey are buried there. No records support this. The pets buried there do not have interment cards. One dog is buried next to Nellie Wood Kiest in Oakland Section 1. The curious thing is that the dog's interment is listed as 1965 on the lot owner's card.
Cemetery management J. B. Buchanan was the first Oakland Cemetery superintendent. A. S. Hall was superintendent in 1896. George W. Loudermilk (1870–1948) became cemetery superintendent in 1902Dallas Morning News, June 1, 1902, p. 29, col. 5. and continued through 1920. While managing his responsibilities at Oakland Cemetery, he continued in the undertaking business and served as superintendent at Greenwood Cemetery in Dallas. Although there is a striking Loudermilk monument, he is not buried in Oakland."Leader in Dallas Affairs, George Loudermilk Dies," Dallas Morning News, July 10, 1948, p. 18, col. 1–2, photo Others who followed Loudermilk include M. H. Duncan (1924), H. C. Early (1925), J. A. Centerwell (1930), J. L. Osborne (1937), Joe J. Chambers (1940). During Loudermilk's time at Oakland and later, C. H. Brantley was the sexton. Captain L. Fulps was the supervisor and landscape gardener in the 1920s and 1930s.
Oakland through the years 1900s through 1920s