Willard Cemetery
N 32° 57.042 W 095° 14.950
15S E 289753 N 3648066
The historic marker for Willard Cemetery, east of Winnsboro
Waymark Code: WMKQXY
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 05/19/2014
Views: 7
A small well-kept cemetery east of Winnsboro a few hundred yards down the Wood Co. Rd 4412 from the SH 11.
The text of the plaque below the Historic Texas Cemetery medallion reads,
"The original cemetery site was donated by John and Martha Willard, whose son was the first to be buried here. They migrated to Wood County about 1866. In 1870, they purchased 300 acres for 50 cents per acre. Some of this property was rented to sharecroppers, cotton was the main crop.
According to legend, about 1880, John was hauling cotton to market by wagon & his teenaged son was with him. The son fell from the wagon & was either run over or a bale of cotton fell on him, resulting in his death. Earlier, he had told his mother that he wanted to be buried under a cedar tree that he had seen while hunting with his father. He was buied under that tree & it is at this spot the tree once stood. His name has been lost in time, but the strongest possibility that his name was William Lee is in census records. He was born in 1867. The oldest marked grave is thar of Andrew Ledbetter, a local farmer, who died in December, 1886.
Many of the marked & unmarked graves belong to children and young adults, depicting the hard life of these early settlers.
The Willard Cemetery Association was formed in April 1998 and was designated a historical cemetery in Dec 2003."
Marker Number: 13751
Marker Text:
None: marker is a medallion only.
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