Rhoads Cemetery, Wise County TX

Rhoads Cemetery

(Click Here to go to All Headstone Pictures Online)

Rhoads Gate.jpg (82561 bytes) Rhoads cemetery is located northeast of Alvord in one of the LBJ National Grassland areas. It’s nearly a mile walk from the road and pretty hard to find in the woods.

Start north out of Alvord on Fm Rd 1655 and turn right just past the railroad tracts in town on E. Pine Street. Turn left on N. Shankle Street and then right on Beyette. After a few blocks take the left fork (CR 2690).

The "Grasslands" gate is a couple of miles out CR 2690 on the right. It’s a light green double gate with a walk-through side and a drive-through side. There’s a number 21 on it.

Walk trough the gate and go on the vehicle tracks to the right. Follow this road for about a half of a mile to a tank dam.

Go across the tank/pond dam but before you get all the way across a trail will fork off to the right (picture in lower left corner). Follow this "cow trail" toward another tank.

Before you get to this tank the trail will fork to the right. Take this path and if you look straight ahead you will see a grove of tall oak trees. Head for these oak trees.

Rhoads Headstone.jpg (123648 bytes) Follow the trail toward the oak trees and go into the woods. You will not be able to see the headstones until you are pretty close in the woods.

The cemetery is fenced off with wire, and iris plants cover the area so there’s not much brush or weeds around the headstones.

Thank you to Homer Hodges for locating this cemetery and giving such good directions, and also to Sonny Keith for walking in there with me.

In 2011 Steve Quarrella sent us the GPS readings for the cemetery -
N 33 23.1157' W 097 39.6608'

In 2002 a Historical Marker was set :

Rhoads Family Cemetery Originally from Tennessee, Abner E. (1820-1910) and Chloe Mays (1824-1886) Rhoads and family came to this area from Kentucky by covered wagon, arriving in 1870. Their son, Moses b. (1845-1916), who was a Methodist circuit rider, schoolteacher and carpenter already living in Texas, came to join them on their 205-acre tract of land along with his wife, Eugenia Sarah (1845-1924), and children. The oldest dated graves marking the deaths of two of their young sons in 1879 and 1880 speak of the difficulties of their experience as they joined with others in settling the land. Recorded here are members of the Johnson, Mitchum, Rhoads and Woodruff families; some descendants believe that as many as 100 others may be laid to rest nearby in unmarked graves. The cotton growers who once plowed this land were forced to relocate in the 1920s and 30s when their fields' soil and fertility were depleted by years of cultivation. In 1940, much of the Rhoads property, including this burial ground, was sold to the U.S. government and is now part of the LBJ National Grasslands. This site remains as a record of these settlers whose successes and struggles are part of the heritage of the Alvord area of Wise County. Historic Texas Cemetery-2002

There were 13 headstones in October 2000.

#	Last Name	First Name	Born	Date of Death	Information Notes
13	Johnson	Infant	Jan 6, 1885	Jan 6, 1885	Son of J.T. & M.C.
12	Johnson	Thomas Lester	July 18, 1887	Aug 6, 1888	Son of J.T. & M.C.
7	Mitcham	Infant	Aug 14, 1895	Aug 17, 1895	Son of M.A. & P.
11	Rhoads	A.E.	Feb 9, 1820	May 13, 1910
10	Rhoads	Chloe	Aug 10, 1824	July 18, 1886	Wife of A.E.
1	Rhoads	Eugenia S.	Mar 9, 1845	Mar 11, 1924	(Mother) Headstone with Moses B.
6	Rhoads	J.A.	Nov 28, 1873	Feb 27, 1898
2	Rhoads	Moses B.	June 16, 1845	Mar 29, 1916	(Father) Headstone with Eugenia S.
3	Rhoads	Pearl	June 20, 1883	Aug 4, 1884	Daughter of J.A. & A.J.
8	Rhodes	Albert L.	Feb 19, 1878	Dec 5, 1880	Son of M.B. & E.S.
9	Rhodes	Virgil M.	Dec 14, 1872	Oct 1, 1879	Son of M.B. & E.S.
4	Woodruff	F.A.		Mar 22, 1882	Aged 13yrs, 8mos, 11dys
5	Woodruff	Jemima	Apr 2, 1833	June 10, 1886	Wife of F.M.