Oakwood Cemetery

Oakwood holds the dead of the 1867 epidemic as well as Houston. The Handbook of Texas says yellow fever reportedly killed 10 percent of Huntsville's population that year. Dr. Pleasant W. Kittrell died in the Steamboat House on September 29, and Anthony Martin Branch died on October 3. Joshua Houston, born into slavery and held by the Houston family, was buried there in 1902 beside his wife Sylvester. Thomas Jewett Goree, superintendent of the state penitentiary for fourteen years, was buried here after his death in 1905.

What the plaque says

Oakwood Cemetery This cemetery existed as early as 1846. For three graves were placed here that year. Pleasant Gray, Huntsville's founder, deeded in 1847 a 1,600-square foot plot at this site. The original tract has been greatly enlarged by other donations from local citizens. Numerous graves bear the death date 1867, when a yellow-fever epidemic swept the county. Among the many famous persons buried here are General Sam Houston; Henderson King Yoakum, author of the first comprehensive history of Texas; state congressmen; and pioneer families. (1976)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fanthorp Inn State Historic Site — 31 mi
  A cedar-log dogtrot cabin of 1834 on the road through Anderson that grew into a seventeen-room inn and post office for travelers of the Republic, kept by one family until 1976.

More markers nearby

• Sam Houston — steps away
• Henderson Yoakum — steps away
• Anthony Martin Branch — steps away
• The Huntsville Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1867 — steps away