The W.W. Adickes Addition to Oakwood Cemetery

The W.W. Adickes Addition to Oakwood Cemetery. . Oakwood Cemetery was a gift to Huntsville from its founder, Pleasant Gray. In 1847 he deeded a 3.67-acre tract lying a quarter mile to the west as a "place of burial" for the community. The cemetery was gradually extended eastward by citizen donations, but by the early 1900s the area available for graves had reached Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive. , Funds to obtain adjoining acreage for cemetery expansion were provided in the 1919 Will of W. W. Adickes, a prominent local businessman and vice president of Gibbs National Bank. A suitable tract of about seven acres across the street from the previous boundary became available in 1925. A deed of sale to Oakwood Cemetery Association by Mrs. Rosa B. Lamkin and other family members stipulated that the new section was to be named the "W.W. Adickes Addition to Oakwood Cemetery." , The Steamboat House, where General Sam Houston died in 1863, was located near the tract's entrance. Following its removal, this site was preserved by the decision that no cemetery plots would be sold where the Steamboat House had stood., Mrs. Annie C. Smither Adickes, widow of W.W. Adickes, made a final gift for the entrance. She contributed funds for the construction of the brick pillars and gateway with its arched wrought-iron signage. The Addition was in use by early 1927., Oakwood Cemetery Association and the City of Huntsville entered into an agreement in 2002 transferring to the City responsibility for owning, maintaining, and operating all sections of Oakwood Cemetery. The Texas Historical Commission designated Oakwood Cemetery, including its Additions, as a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2003.