Oxford Cemetery

Oxford Cemetery. . As the primary burial ground for citizens of the Cottonwood community and the family of Garland Walker Ross (1807-1892) and Elizabeth Hodges Ross (1826- 1882), the Oxford Cemetery was in use as early as 1869., The Ross family came to Texas around 1865 from Lauderdale County, Mississippi. Another early family in the area was the Neal family, who also moved from Mississippi and arrived in Texas in 1851, naming the area Neal in the application for a post office. The town was later known as Cottonwood., This section of the Ross land was originally used for the Oxford Church and Academy in the 1870s, a center for learning and worship. After the building was removed by 1891, only the cemetery remained. In 1891, A.S. Ross, Nancy Ann Ross Madole and F.R. Madole deeded this section to the church and cemetery trustees., The first recorded burial in Oxford Cemetery was Julie Ann Roberts Pigford (1827-1869). Many veterans are buried here, including veterans from the Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korean War and the Vietnam War., In the 1950s and 1960s, an informal cemetery association organized to collect donations, participate in community events, and catalog and maintain the cemetery, placing flags on the graves during holidays. Among the oak and crape myrtle trees, the Oxford Cemetery remains as a vestige of the early Cottonwood community in Madison County and the ties that enrich the area's heritage. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2016.