Biographies of Oakwood Cemetery Residents
Browse by surname: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
ALLISON, WILMER LAWSON (1904-1977) Buried in
Section 2, lot 801
Wilmer Lawson Allison, tennis player, was born in San Antonio,
Texas, in 1904. His family moved to Fort Worth in his youth and he
became an outstanding amateur baseball player in high school. He
enrolled at the University of Texas in 1925 after his father refused
to permit him to sign a professional baseball contract with the
Beaumont team of the Texas League. At UT, he began an
internationally acclaimed career as a tennis player. Under the
tutelage of Daniel A. Penick, he won the Southwest Conference and
National Collegiate Athletic Association championships in
1927.Allison won the Wimbledon double title in 1929 and 1930 with
partner, John Van Ryn. They are considered by many tennis historians
to be the best doubles combination of the period. Allison achieved
the number-one ranking in the U.S. in 1934 and 1935 and won the U.S.
National Open Championship in 1935. Along with partner, Van Ryn, he
claimed National Doubles in 1931 and 1935 and finished second in
1930, 1932, 1934, and1936. In 1937 after a serious injury to his
lower abdomen and at this time served as an assistant to Penick at
the University of Texas from 1938 -1941, when he left to join the
army air corps where he achieved the rank of colonel. After his
discharge he returned to the University in 1947 and served as
Penick's assistant until 1957. That year he became the head tennis
coach at the University, where he served until his retirement in
1972. He instituted a policy restricting athletic scholarships for
tennis to players from Texas. His teams won four Southwest
Conference team championships, three singles titles, and one doubles
title. He was elected to the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 1957 and
is a member of the Longhorn Hall of Honor. In 1963, he was enshrined
in both the national and international tennis halls of fame. Allison
died in 1977 of a heart attack, only four days after the dedication
of the new University of Texas tennis facility in his and Penick's
honor. Source
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/
ANDERSON, WASHINGTON (1817-1894) Buried in
Section 1, lot 305
Washington (Wash) Anderson, hero of the battle of San Jacinto, was
born in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, where his grandfather had
been a captain in the Revolutionary War. He arrived at Port Lavaca,
Texas, in February 1835 with his father, Dr. Thomas Anderson and
brother John D. Anderson. . On March 25, 1838, Anderson married his
cousin Mary Ann Glascock. He fought in the battle of Brushy Creek in
1839. The Andersons received several land grants for service.
Washington Anderson settled a short distance east of the original
Round Rock in 1843 and built a gristmill, which was washed out by a
flood in 1845. He signed the petition to form Williamson County in
1848. He built the county's first sawmill and gristmill and was one
of the most prominent settlers of Round Rock, The Anderson home is
still standing on Brushy Creek in Round Rock. Anderson served in
Capt. Jesse Billingsley's company in the battle of San Jacinto,
where he was wounded in the ankle. Anderson is pictured in William
H. Huddle's painting The Surrender of Santa Anna. Wash Anderson died
in 1894 in Round Rock of old age. Source
www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/
ANDREWARTHA, JOHN (1839-1916) Buried in Section
4, lot 850
John Andrewartha, architect and civil engineer, was born in England
in 1839. He trained as an engineer in the Royal Navy. He moved to
Kentucky in 1865. Here he worked as an architect and engineer. He
moved to Austin in 1881 in the hope that he would be chosen to
design the new Capitol. Although he failed to secure the commission,
he elected to settle in Austin and set up practice as an architect
and civil engineer. In 1884, he designed the new Austin City-County
Hospital (razed in 1929). The imposing Queen Anne style structure,
located at 1405 Sabine St., was the first public hospital in Texas.
Andrewartha's residential work included a number of houses, among
them the Henry Hirschfeld house, 1885, and now listed in the
National Register of Historic Places. He was responsible for the
design of the Montopolis bridge across the Colorado River (destroyed
by flooding in 1935), and St. John's Home for Negro Orphans (burned
in 1956) Andrewartha died in 1916. Source
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online
ANDREWS, WILLIE ANN HUDSON (1848-1895) Buried in
Section 3, lot 1005
Willie Ann Hudson Andrews, school founder and teacher, was born in
Virginia in 1848. After her marriage she moved to the Harris Chapel
community in Gonzales County, Texas, where she established the first
of several innovative coeducational schools in south central Texas.
Mrs. Andrews conducted three other schools and it was the curriculum
at Science Hall which covered math, science, business, art, and
music, that was considered a model course of study and drew students
from across the state. School officials built a dormitory. The
school boarded both male and female students, an unusual arrangement
at the time. After Science Hall was destroyed by fire in the early
1880s, Mrs. Andrews consolidated her operations with Kyle Baptist
Seminary. After an unsatisfactory year at the seminary, she opened
Science Hall Home Institute in 1884. In 1888, at the request of a
group of Austin citizens who donated a school site she established
the Austin Home Institute, which operated until 1895. Willie Andrews
died in 1895 at the age of 47, of injuries sustained in a carriage
accident. Source
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online
ASSMAN, GEORGE PAUL (1849-1910) Buried in
Section 1, Assmann lot
George Assman was born in Bavaria Oct 6, 1849. He learned his trade
as gunsmith, locksmith and expert safe opener at the large army
depots of Germany and Switzerland. He came to the U. S. in 1870. He
was a charter member of the Austin Saenggerrunde, for which he
served many years as President. He was also a trustee of the Texas
German Academy and member of the Austin Hook & Ladder #1 and an
agent for Anheuser-Busch Beer Co. He died May 18, 1910.