City Greenwood Cemetery

Records & History

Due to the age of City Greenwood Cemetery, and the Parker County Courthouse fires that occurred in the past, few records exist. Official ownership of the cemetery is undeterminable.

Due to vandalism that occurred at the cemetery in the 1990s, the Parker County Heritage Society worked alongside the city and the community to erect a wrought iron fence around the cemetery, and to upright, repair, replace, and restore damaged or defaced headstones.

In 1999, members of the Parker County Heritage Society prepared an index of burial information for all of the headstones that were in place and legible after their dedicated restoration work. This book is the only record currently held by the city for the cemetery. The City Secretary assists in searching this document upon request. The City Secretary may answer questions for the public; however, please keep in mind that data is very limited.

Maintenance

The City of Weatherford Parks, Recreation & Special Events Department provides mowing and landscape maintenance at the cemetery.

Burials

Today, there are only two ways a person may be interred at City Greenwood Cemetery:

1) by providing proof that the deceased is a descendent of a family who has space available in a family plot and upon determination by one of two local funeral homes that space is in fact available in that plot. This process is handled by letter agreement between the City and the two local funeral homes.

2) the deceased is indigent. The indigent process is handled through Parker County Commissioner's Court and the two local funeral homes.

Rules & Regulations

The project to establish rules and regulations for City Greenwood Cemetery began in 2014 on request of the Parker County Heritage Society. After much consideration, it was determined that rules were necessary for the health and safety of the parks maintenance crews, contractors, volunteers, and visitors to the cemetery, and for the proper appearance and standards of Weatherford's most notable and historic cemetery. As such, the rules and regulations were posted during the first week of October 2016. The 2-ft by 3-ft permanent signs were installed at the four entrances to the cemetery. Additionally, temporary signage was posted in the cemetery to notify visitors that:

1) the rules went into effect on January 1, 2017;

2) visitors would have through February 28, 2017 to personally remove all items not permitted by these rules and regulations;

3) that after February 28, 2017, staff would remove any items that were in violation beginning March 1, 2017;

4) items were available to be claimed from the City Secretary's Office March 2-31, 2017 by contacting the City Secretary in person at City Hall at 303 Palo Pinto Street; and

5) any items remaining on April 1, 2017 were to be discarded at that time. Remaining items were actually held two months beyond this date.

Families were encouraged to remove personal items not in compliance with these rules on or before February 28, 2017.

Beginning March 1, 2017, any newly placed items found in the cemetery and not in compliance with these rules may be removed and discarded immediately by city staff, city contractors working in the cemetery, and or by authorized volunteers of the Parker County Heritage Society.