Oakland Cemetery

Oakland Cemetery is the largest cemetery in Drew County. Many early settlers are buried in the Old Cemetery section with dates going back to the mid 1800s. A monument commemorating the Confederate Soldiers of Drew County 1861-1865 was erected by the William F. Slemons Chapter, UDC in 1914 and appears to be standing guard over the Old Cemetery section. It is said that William Pinkney Burks was first to be buried there in 1866. The story is told that a road had to be cut into the cemetery because the timber was so dense. Many people chose to have family members exhumed from small rural cemeteries and reburied in the Oakland Cemetery; therefore some death dates are earlier than 1866.

Oakland Cemetery includes the graves of William Frank Norrell (1896-1961), who served in the U. S. Congress from 1939 until his death, and Catherine Davis Norrell (March 30, 1901-Aug. 26, 1981), who succeeded her husband in the U. S. Congress in 1961 and served until 1963.