Gooseneck Cemetery

Before the cemetery, this bend of the Brazos held the Brazos Reserve, home at its height to about 2,000 people in separate Caddo, Anadarko, Waco and Tonkawa villages. They farmed some 600 acres of corn, wheat, vegetables and melons, and between fifty and a hundred men served as scouts for rangers and the army, which angered raiding bands and anti-Indian settlers alike. Settlers routinely blamed small raids on the reserve's people. In 1859 the people were moved to Indian Territory, and in 1862 Tonkawas who had been resettled there were attacked, with many killed.

What the plaque says

Gooseneck Cemetery Named for a bend in the Brazos River, this cemetery first served pioneers of the Gooseneck community. Land for the burial ground was donated by Kentucky native George Washington Fore (1823-1903) and his son, John Silas Fore (1851-1931), who became a cattleman and sheriff in Wichita County. The property was earlier part of the Brazos River Indian Preserve. The Fore's also conveyed land for a community school and church. The school remained in operation until 1947, when it merged with the Graham District. The church, originally known as Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church, later became Bunger Baptist Church. Burials in Gooseneck Cemetery date from shortly after the Civil War. The earliest marked graves are those of F. M. McLaren and Anna Davidson who died in 1876. Others interred here include the site's donor, George Washington Fore, and James James (1764-1878). A native of Virginia and a veteran of the War of 1812, James was 114 years old at the time of his death. Today Gooseneck Cemetery is an important reminder of a pioneer community. Many descendants of its early settlers continue to maintain the site as a tribute to the area's rich heritage. (1988)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Old Post Office Museum and Art Center — 5.4 mi
  Graham's 1936 Art Moderne post office, with a New Deal mural by Alexandre Hogue inside, now the free museum of Young County in the town where the Texas cattle raisers first organized.
• Fort Belknap — 13 mi
  The 1851 northern anchor of the first Texas frontier forts, on the Brazos below Newcastle, a Butterfield stop and the post beside the Brazos Reservation until its people were driven out in 1859.
• Fort Richardson State Park and Historic Site — 29 mi
  The northernmost post of the Texas frontier line, outside Jacksboro, where a stone hospital and six other buildings stand from 1867 and a later Guard unit became the Lost Battalion.

More markers nearby

• The Tonk Valley Community — 3.4 mi
• Brazos Indian Reservation School — 4.7 mi
• Brazos River Indian Reservation — 4.9 mi
• Morrison Funeral Home — 5.3 mi