Photo courtesy Williamson County HistoCity aims to preserve historic 30-acre site
Passersby may not immediately recognize the significance of the headstones standing at the eastern end of Seventh Street, but a closer look shows their indelibly carved historical value.
Founded in the late 1800s, the International Order of Odd Fellows Cemetery holds more than 3,000 former residents, including Georgetown's first police chief, Charley Brady, and J.J. Gordon, who served as a district clerk and Georgetown ISD's tax collector. Several well-known individuals are also buried here, including Jessie Daniels Ames, a 1920s suffragette, and Nannie Elizabeth Houston Morrow, the eldest daughter of Sam Houston.
The IOOF was founded in 17th century England, when medical technology was still primitive and expensive, and burial for the dead cost more than most families could pay. Friends and neighbors would come together and contribute what money they had to pay for medicine or burial, or to assist when individuals lost their jobs. Other help could include replanting a lost crop or rebuilding a barn that had burned down, the IOOF website said.
Those who chipped in to help became known as "odd fellows," because it was odd in those days to see people give up their money in what was considered an "impractical fashion," according to the website.
