HISTORY OF ROSEMOUND CEMETERY
About 200 acres of land was acquired for Rosemound Cemetery and plotted out in 1923. It occupied 42.68 acres located on Garden Drive from about 12th Street to what would be about 16th Street. It was mapped out in sixteen areas of curvilinear Blocks A through P. It was intended that Rosemound would provide comparatively low-priced burial spaces and the property owners would not be subject to fees for cemetery upkeep thereby being a “perpetual care” cemetery.
Mr. J.D. Harlow was designated as the first Sexton and the first burial of record is that of J.H.B. Lacy on Feb. 2, 1924 in what is now Block H. Late in 1924 Mr. Charles A. Bell served as Sexton until about 1933 when Mr. William B. Braden became Sexton for Rosemound Cemetery.
Part of the 200 acres acquired in 1917 was designated as a cemetery for Mexican burials and was located at the far end of the 1917 land purchase with an entrance on S. 4th Street. It was sometimes called “Mexican Rosemound.” The first burial there was about April of 1929 and we continue to make burials there today as a low cost alternative to the main cemetery.
An area of 12.26 acres was sold for use as a Hebrew cemetery about 1930. The area sold included Blocks A, B, C, D, E, and part of H. The first burial in the Hebrew area was about April 22, 1930. Rodof Shalom and Agudath Jacob are side by side next to Rosemound and Agudath Jacob is orthodox and the other is not.
Six acres of land in Rosemound were set aside for the burial of war veterans in 1934 or 1935 and was designated as the Veterans of Foreign Wars section. The first burial in this section was March 3, 1935.
The Rosemound Cemetery Association was created about 1960 and an area to the south of the cemetery which was designated and used as a municipal golf course was re-designated for future expansion of the cemetery. Nine Trustees were elected to the Board September 16, 1960 from burial property owners. Elected were:
Mrs. Lee Roy Himes, President
Mrs. Ida Cooke, Vice President
Mrs. Odis R. McCune, Secretary
J. H. Boyd (later Treasurer)
Gordon K. Connally
J.B. Hooks
Jim A. Phipps
L. L. Stone
Various boards were elected over the years to manage the cemetery until an agreement with The Oakwood Cemetery Association on July 16, 2012 was reached to improve the efficiency and viability of the cemetery. The Rosemound board of directors consists of a President, 1st Vice President, 2nd Vice President/Treasurer, and Secretary who are all members of the Oakwood Cemetery Board and the current General Manager of Oakwood John Hubble. Today there are over 18,000 burials at Rosemound Cemetery. **
**Excerpted from McLennan County, Texas Cemetery Records Volume VI 1983 Rosemound Cemetery