FIRST Grave in Woodland Cemetery - Hopkins County, TX - First of its Kind on Waymarking.com

The original grave was marked with a fieldstone into which a crude inscription was made, and most of it is still with us today. It appears to read:

R.G.S.
Bo. Sep.
1826

The 2012 marker identifies it as First Grave/R.G.S./Bo. Sep. 1826, with a photo of the fieldstone marker, enhanced to aid legibility. Next to that marker is another, which says:

This Marker is Erected
In Recognition of the First
Grave in
Woodland Cemetery
By
Woodland Cemetery Society

Donated by Pittsburg Marble Co.

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The Woodland Cemetery Society has done an outstanding job here. At the front of the cemetery is a list of known burials that are unmarked, but yet, in recent years, there are modern, gray, granite headstones where a few of those named are buried. There is a Texas Historical Marker at the cemetery gate, which mentions another first, but the identification of this grave by no means negates that one, the headstone with the earliest death date. The historical marker says:

The Woodland Community (Wood Lawn or Woodland Village) began in this area in the mid-1800s. The pioneer families of the community included those of brothers Richard L. and John C. Askew. In 1858, on land owned by Richard, John and his wife Mary buried their young daughter at what became the Woodland Cemetery. Her tombstone bears the earliest death date, although tradition holds that another gravesite, that of a child whose family was passing through the area, predates it. Adjacent to the cemetery, the community built a structure used for school and for Primitive Baptist Church services. A post office operated in the vicinity from 1855 to 1866.

As more families came to the area, the development shifted east. On land owned by John Askew and centered on Askew Spring, later named Bethel Spring, the community became known as Bethel. Area residents continued to use this burial ground of more than 200 marked graves. Local tradition and records indicate that unmarked graves include those of slaves. Among those buried here are veterans of the Civil War and World War II. An association maintains the burial ground, a tangible tie to area history.

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We don't really know if "R.G.S." is the child referenced here, nor the means by which the cemetery association determined that this was first grave in the cemetery.

FIRST - Classification Variable: Person or Group Date of FIRST: Not listed More Information - Web URL: Not listed

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