Rose Hill Cemetery

The plaque lists victims of the Paragon Saloon disaster without saying what happened. A storm in July 1882 collapsed a building onto the saloon, and fire followed. The New Orleans Times-Democrat of July 14, 1882, reproduced on HMdb, reported about forty lives lost, a Texarkana dispatch estimated at least thirty men were inside, and another report had eight bodies recovered with seven or eight more in the ruins. Also buried here are two Texas congressmen, John Levi Sheppard (1852-1902) and Robert Lee Henry (1864-1931). The city has sold no plots since 2001.

What the plaque says

Rose Hill Cemetery One of the oldest cemeteries in Texarkana. Founded as "City Cemetery" in 1874, shortly after the town was established in December, 1873. Here lie the remains of some of the city's first citizens-- plantation owners, the livery stable owner, country doctors, lawyers, the cabinet maker, and 2 known members of the Texas legislature. About 70 Confederate soldiers and 3 known Union soldiers are also interred here. Other burials include victims of the 1882 Paragon Saloon disaster, which occurred when a storm caused a nearby building to collapse, thus starting a fire. In 1889 the Rose Hill Cemetery Association was formed to beautify and maintain the tract. A very impressive monument marks the grave of Otis Henry, a young World War I soldier. The grave of Captain Francis Marion Henry, one of the city fathers and a great-great-grandson of American Patriot Patrick Henry, is marked by a Texas historical marker. The center-drive lots are reserved for designated soldiers and veterans of World Wars I and II from Bowie County, Texas and Miller County, Arkansas. Many of the older graves are placed in cement "cradles", a surviving custom of earlier times, as is the secluded atmosphere of this heart-of-town plot. (1969)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Museum of Regional History — 0.8 mi
  Texarkana's oldest museum, in an 1879 brick building on State Line Avenue, with Caddo pottery, one of Scott Joplin's pianos and a research library of city directories and photographs.
• Atlanta State Park — 17 mi
  A shoreline park on Wright Patman Lake, leased from the Army in 1954, where Caddo ancestors farmed the Sulphur River and wagon traces such as the Bobo Ferry trace still cross the woods.

More markers nearby

• Martha Adams Runnels — steps away
• World War I Memorial — 0.9 mi
• First Disciples of Christ in Texas — 0.9 mi
• The French in Texas — 0.9 mi