Selman-Roark Cemetery

William Roark, born September 16, 1803, came from Tennessee in the fall of 1834 with his wife Margaret, a daughter of the Baptist minister Isaac Reed. In early 1835 the land commissioner at Nacogdoches appointed him surveyor for the Mexican government, and he went on to survey for the Burnet, Zavala and Vehlein colonies. Sam Houston commissioned him a justice of the peace in 1837. He was a partner in the Durst and Mitchell Mercantile Company and one of the first two deacons of Old Palestine Baptist Church. He died of diphtheria near Linwood on December 10, 1862.

What the plaque says

Selman-Roark Cemetery 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. (1978)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Caddo Mounds State Historic Site — 10 mi
  Three earthen mounds of an ancestral Caddo village and ceremonial center on the old El Camino Real, settled about A.D. 800 and still sacred to Caddo people, with a grass house and visitor center.

More markers nearby

• Candace Midkiff Bean — steps away
• Old Palestine Baptist Church — 1.1 mi
• Site of Linwood — 2.0 mi
• Angelina River — 2.0 mi