Old Trinity Cemetery

Fort Worth, Texas

Photo by Rob Yoder - 1999

Old Trinity Cemetery is the final resting place for many Tarrant County citizens of African American decent. One of those buried there is William Madison "Gooseneck" McDonald who was a successful businessman and active in politics. The McDonald monument, the tallest in the cemetery, was erected by "Gooseneck" on his family plot.  He arranged for beautiful granite slabs to be placed on the graves of family that preceded him in death, but his grave remains unmarked. Old Trinity Cemetery, also known as Trinity Cemetery or Trinity Colored Cemetery, adjoins Oakwood Cemetery on it's northern edge and although it is encompassed within the same fence, it is not actually a part of Oakwood. Until recent years, records of burials in Old Trinity were not kept by Oakwood, so many of the burials there went unrecorded. Only 589 records of burials were found, with 102 from the sexton's records of Oakwood and the remaining 487 taken directly from the stones. Source: Historic Oakwood Cemetery with Calvary Cemetery and Old Trinity Cemetery of Fort Worth, Texas, compiled by Helen McKelvy Markgraf and Rob G. Yoder.  Published 1994 by the Fort Worth Genealogical Society.