Austin Cemetery Tells City Story

The historic Oakwood Cemetery has a rich past, and controversy surrounding its treatment, which has flared up again, has swirled for over 100 years.

1 minute read

April 21, 2006, 10:00 AM PDT

By David Gest

"Like all cemeteries, Oakwood's 40 acres mirror their inhabitants' living societies. In the cemetery's early days, the north section was designated as 'colored grounds.' Paupers' bodies were carted from the gate to a small plot in the northwestern portion of the cemetery, then buried in unmarked graves. And if you had a family and you weren't black or Latino, you were buried on the south side, with some sort of grave marker -- perhaps just a plain, wooden remembrance, or maybe a fancy, carved or cast tombstone. Here is the tall 'white bronze' (that is, cast zinc) marker of brother and sister Robert and Mable Tumey, who, according to the Austin Daily Statesman, died seven days apart in 1888 of diphtheria..."

FULL STORY: City of the Dead

Friday, April 21, 2006 in The Austin Chronicle

History / Preservation Texas

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