Wooten Springs Cemetery

Wooten Springs Cemetery. . , [south side] Site of Old Union Church established March 8, 1871, Texarkana, Texas. Property donated by W.W. Wooten, owner of Wooten Springs (todays Springlake Park). , Updated records restored by Texarkana Genealogical Society December 1992. Property restored and maintained by Twin Cities Noon Lions Club. , This memorial dedicated Sept. 6, 1993. , This memorial donated by Ken Stewart Memorial Arts. , Letter cut and design by Cigainero Enterprises. , [north side] , Forgotten Churches and Cemeteries , Some two years before the City of Texarkana proper was established, a small group of Baptist and Methodist assembled at Boggs Springs, Ark. in an effort to locate and secure a building in which they could share in Texarkana. At the meeting Mr. W.W. Wooten offered to donate a 3 acre tract to the group, (Mr. Wooten owning a large land grant in this area from the Willis Oldham Headright Survey Abst. 458 Bowie County, Texas), this property presenting N. end Ghio Fish Blvd. Early in 1871, on March 8, records from Stewart Title and Texarkana Title abstract companies both reflect that W.W. Wooten and wife Martha J. Wooten deeded to the trustees three (3) acres of land. Evidently there was a building existing on the property from the wording in the deed thence running north 118 yards west of the center of said church (the church known as Union Church). , The Baptist used the building jointly until Aug. 24, 1886, and the Methodist until 1890, both moving to larger and separate locations nearer town. , The earliest grave site recorded in what is now Wooten Cemetery is William Stricklin, buried on 24 Jan. 1875, but could have been an bit later in burial at this site as records from his granddaughter Mrs. Kenneth Brown of Hooks, Texas states that her grandfather was buried in small graveyard on west end of downtown Texarkana and body moved when downtown Texarkana was platted with streets. Gravesite at front of cemetery. , The second record of burial at this cemetery was on 23 Feb. 1877 of W.C. Pruitt. There could have been earlier burials, but we cannot find documented records of any. , The cemetery was originally square in size but when the railroad was built running north it sliced off a small corner leaving the land with an angle on the west side, so we are not sure if any early gravesites were removed. This was approximately sometime in 1880. , The present site of Springlake Park was the original site of Wooten Springs (this land immediately across the railroad next to the Wooten Cemetery). The spring was a stopping and resting area for travelers coming across the Red River to the east at Fulton as well to the north coming south from area of Richmond, Arkansas. The cemetery rests on a hill east of Wooten Springs and about one fourth mile from the present state line between Arkansas and Texas. , This cemetery has for so many years been neglected and no one organization claims ownership even though the deed states to: W.A. Miller, W.M. Edwards, J.A. Porter, T.J. Edwards and W.F. Crabtree, Trustees and their successors as trustees of the Little Rock Conference of the M.E. Church, south. So this orphaned cemetery for so many years has been unkept except for an occasional project by one and another organization but not kept up on a regular basis until this year.