PARK AND CEMETERY. 
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HOW WOMEN IMPROVED a NEGLECTED CEMETERY 
The most difficult of all civic work, and 
requiring the most tactful management, is 
the redemption and beautifying of an old 
cemetery, and this has been the work of 
our cemetery association for six years. 
Oakwood is a municipal cemetery, and to 
our mayor and commissioners we owe 
much of our success, as they have given 
us both money and advice. 
Much of historic interest clings around 
this old cemetery. It was established 
when, after a struggle, the capital of 
Texas was finally located at Austin. The 
population then consisted of a few pioneer 
NEW ENTRANCE TO OAKWOOD CEMETERY, AUSTIN, TEX. 
OLD ENTRANCE TO OAKWOOD CEMETERY, AUSTIN, TEX. 
men and women who wisely selected the 
present beautiful grounds for a cemetery, 
and when they buried their dead they went 
heavily armed, and often saw the red sav- 
ages skulking around while an interment 
was in progress. 
There were no landscape architects in 
those days, and our pioneers laid out their 
cemetery, as was the custom in older 
states, with square lots, with a walk 
around each lot, resulting in an inartistic 
development and a waste of ground. When 
our work first began, Oakwood was a neg- 
lected, disreputable mass of undergrowth, 
trash and overturned headstones. Our 
first work was to clear and clean up. We 
trimmed trees, reinstated the fallen stones, 
filled sunken graves, turned the quagmires 
into good roads, and did judicious plant- 
ing. The new granite entrance gate is 
considered the finest in Texas. It consists 
of four great granite columns surmounted 
with classic urns and flanked with curving 
walls of granite. The whole structure is 
characterized by massive simplicity. The 
old gate was a whitewashed wooden affair, 
as may be seen from one of the illustra- 
tions. 
Ofir desire is to make our silent city 
attractive, to assist its natural beauty, and 
create an atmosphere restful and peaceful. 
Many of our great men and women rest 
in this old cemetery, and it contains many 
beautiful vistas and views. The one look- 
ing south to the old Beth Israel quarter is 
quaintly picturesque. This is the section 
where the pioneers are buried. A time- 
worn old monument bears this inscription : 
“United in life, not divided in death.” 
Two friends massacred by the Indians are 
buried here. Time has obliterated the in- 
scriptions on many old stones, but many 
which are still decipherable are quaint and 
interesting. 
Recently seventeen acres have been ad- 
ded to Oakwood, which will be developed 
in a modern w'ay, but our six years’ work 
has transformed the old cemetery and we 
are more than repaid. What we have 
done, others, being similarly conditioned, 
can do. Bad cemetery conditions can be 
remedied by intelligent effort. 
Austin, Tex. Mary IT. Mitchell. 
INTERESTING SAVANNAH 
MEMORIAL. 
One of the most interesting memorials 
in historic Bonaventure Cemetery, Savan- 
nah, Ga., takes the form of a massive gate 
or square arch, which looks out over the 
lake, and is surrounded by a picturesque 
growth of old trees festooned with Span- 
ish moss. It is handsomely carved in Geor- 
gia marble and stands at the entrance to 
the Lawton Square. The memorial and the 
curbing of the square shown in the illustra- 
tion are of Georgia marble. 
LAWTON MEMORIAL GATE IN BONAVENTURE CEMETERY, SAVANNAH, GA. 
