Historical Marker in Ellis County, Texas
Oak Branch Cemetery
Location: Oak Branch Road, on FM 66, 7 miles SW Waxahachie
In 1875 area pioneer William M. Claunch (1815-1888) donated twenty acres of his ranch land for a Methodist church, church campground and cemetery. The oldest grave in the burial ground is that of Susaner Bynum, the one-year-old daughter of M. C. and L. C. Bynum, who died in 1881. Many of the gravestones date from the 1880s and bear the family names of "Bynum, Hollingsworth, Williams, Gilbreth, Martin, Claunch and Blakely - all early settlers in the once-thriving community of Oak (1 mile N.) Since 1927 the historic graveyard has been maintained by the Oak Branch cemetery association.
[1984}
The memorial itself is a medium-sized gray granite marker, with "W.M. Claunch" on one side, and an inscription on the other:
This Memorial Is
Erected & Dedicated
To the Memory of
W.M. Claunch
Who donated to the trustees
of the Oak Branch Church, this
20 acres of land - June 3, 1875
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Re: Vol. N - Page 520 Deed Records
Ellis County Texas
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"For the love I bear for the cause
of Christ and for an earnest desire
to promote this heritage on Earth
do hereby give, grant and dedicate
to the glory of God forever
this 20 acres of land."
Signed -- W.M. Claunch
Erected -- April 1952
By Mrs. Nora Burnett