Tarrant County TXGenWeb - Wilson Family Cemetery

Tarrant County, TXGenWeb

Wilson Family Cemetery

This is a small reconstructed cemetery located about five miles east of Mansfield on Lynn Road (County Road 2012). Charles N. and Ophelia (West) Wilson lived on this property when she died in 1872. This part of the Wilson land was known as the Polo Ranch. It is now owned by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers and is part of the Joe Pool Lake project.

Ophelia Wilson was buried here with her infant daughter, and the graves were marked with oak saplings. In the 1930s, another Wilson daughter returned to the site and placed two headstones and a wrought iron fence. The small graveyard was vandalized in 1980 and the markers and fence removed. The Corps of Engineers located the stolen Wilson markers, placed a marker for the Bowlin infant and replaced the wrought iron fence. The site was designated as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1986. The marker carries the inscription:

Wilson Cemetery

This pioneer cemetery dates to 1872, when Charles N. Wilson buried his wife and infant child here. Ophelia E. West Wilson (1853 - 1972) and her newborn daughter died as a result of complications during childbirth. The third grave in the cemetery, that of the Bowlin infant, is unmarked. James W. and Mattie C. Bowlin buried their son here, since a public graveyard was not readily accessible to their home. The Wilson Cemetery contains only these three graves, but it is an important reminder of the ways of life in 19th Century Tarrant County.

Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986.

Note that there is an error in the inscription.
The grave of the Bowlin infant is now marked.

WILSON, Ophelia & Child
1853 - 1872

BOWLIN, Male
No Dates
son of James W. & Mattie (Curry) Bowlin

Published 1986 by Mansfield Historical Society, P.O. Box 304, Mansfield, Texas 76063.
Used by permission.
Provided to this site by Margaret R. Bates

This page was last modified 15 Jan 2003.