1936
GRAVE OF HENDERSON YOAKUM
HUNTSVILLE, TEXAS
In her 1936 presentation to the General Assembly, State Regent Mrs. Alvin Valentine Lane stated that the state chairman of the Memorials and Marking Historic Spots Committee, Mrs. Henderson Yoakum Robinson of Huntsville, had reported “the dedication of the restoration of the monument at Huntsville, Texas, of Colonel Henderson Yoakum, first Historian of Texas.” Mrs. Robinson’s interest in this project can be readily understood since she was the widow of a descendant and namesake of Colonel Yoakum. The only record located which pertains to this marker indicates that an informal dedication was held, at which flowers were placed on the grave, followed by the completion of the straightening and cleaning of the monument.
Colonel Yoakum was a graduate of the United States Military Academy who arrived In Texas from Tennessee late in 1845. He was a veteran officer of the Mexican War, an active member of the Masonic Lodge, and the author of the first comprehensive history of Texas. Following his death in 1856, a beautiful white marble obelisk monument was erected at his grave in Huntsville’s Oakwood Cemetery, the gift of the citizens of the town.
No evidence of a DAC marker has been found at the site.