Rosedale Cemetery was established by John Kittle Armstrong in 1856 as a family cemetery, and the first burial was his wife, Sarah Armstrong. The cemetery association was established in 1911 and in 1932 signed an oil lease with McFarland Oil Company of Kilgore, TX, to drill two wells on cemetery property. The lease agreement allowed the cemetery to become self-endowed. From 1932-1972, while the wells produced oil, those buried in Rosedale Cemetery had an average monthly income of $150 to $300.