Oak Branch, Ellis County
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.E. 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 mi. N). Since 1927 the historic graveyard has been maintained by the Oak Branch cemetery association.