Willard Cemetery

The original cemetery site was donated by John and Martha Willard, who migrated to Wood County about 1866, and their son was the first person buried there. In 1870, they purchased 300 acres for 50 cents per acre, and some of this land was rented to sharecroppers while cotton was the main crop. According to legend, about 1880 John was hauling cotton to market by wagon with his teenaged son when the boy fell from the wagon and was either run over or struck by a falling bale of cotton, causing his death. He had earlier told his mother that he wanted to be buried under a cedar tree he had seen while hunting with his father, and he was buried beneath that tree at the site where it once stood. His name has been lost in time, though census records suggest that he was probably William Lee, born in 1867. The oldest marked grave is that of Andrew Ledbetter, a local farmer who died in December 1886. Many of the marked and unmarked graves belong to children and young adults, reflecting the hard life of these early settlers. The Willard Cemetery Association was formed in April 1998, and the cemetery was designated a historical cemetery in December 2003.

Texas · United States