Greenwood Family - Kemp, OK
N 33° 45.692 W 096° 19.617
14S E 747572 N 3738926
Five members of the Greenwood family are buried together off the side of Tombstone Road a little over two miles southeast of Kemp, OK.
Waymark Code: WM12B76
Location: Oklahoma, United States
Date Posted: 04/18/2020
Views: 1
Given that the road name is "Tombstone Road", this is probably a local curiosity. For best results, plug the coordinates into your GPS and let them take you there. To get into the general area, take Kemp Road from Kemp east for nearly two miles until you get to Tombstone Road, and then turn left. Proceed slowly and the headstone will be about a third of a mile to your right, on the west side of the road. Please be careful to not block the way.
It's a coin toss as to whether one would consider this cemetery to be maintained or abandoned: It is easily missed while driving, but once located, it's easy to photograph despite the weeds and tall grass in front of it (and do watch your step). There is no indication as to whether the family is interred on the road side of the barbed wire fence, or on the pasture side, and in the tall grass, it would require an eagle eye or a good sense of feel to locate any grave depressions.
This appears to be the final resting place for Allen Greenwood, his wife, Nancy, and three of their children. Findagrave connects the couple with Ira and Alonzo, but there is no such link for Benjamin. The north side of the headstone has "Infants" and "Allen & Nancy Greenwood", suggesting that there may be additional burials, although Findagrave has Ira as being seven or eight years old at the time of his passing. Without any solid dates, anything is pure speculation. It's possible that Mr. Greenwood and/or his wife was a Chickasaw, as "Allen Greenwood" pops up a few times in Chickasaw records from the 1860s.
The family name, "Greenwood", is on the plinth on one side of the headstone, making it the front due to its referencing the earliest burial of the family, Alonzo Greenwood. It reads:
Alonzo
Greenwood
Died
June 27, 1870
B.F.
Greenwood
Died
Mar. 15, 1877
---
The opposite side reads:
Infants
Allen & Nancy
Greenwood
Ira
Greenwood
Died
Mar. 28, 1875
---
The side facing the pasture is blank, while Mr. and Mrs. Greenwood's side reads:
Allen
Greenwood
Died
Dec. 23, 1874
Nancy, Wife of
Allen Greenwood
Died
Oct. 18, 1873