Oakdale Cemetery in Hendersonville: October Events & History

Judge David Fox was putting flags on soldiers' graves at Oakdale Cemetery when he stopped at an obelisk and read the inscription. The stone belonged to Sgt. Walter H. Bryson, a Henderson County native who had served with the Buffalo Soldiers. WLOS described his story as an almost forgotten piece of county history.

That grave is now the reason for the first of two October events at Oakdale. At 4 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 9, the city's Historic Preservation Commission will unveil a historic marker for Bryson in the northern portion of the cemetery. Two weeks later, Voices of Oakdale turns the grounds into a stage. Both events lead visitors across Sixth Avenue West, to the side of the highway that Wolfe's Angel never sent anyone to see.

A cemetery with a highway through it

Oakdale sits on both sides of Sixth Avenue West, which is U.S. 64, west of Valley Street and about a mile west of downtown. The grounds cover about 22 acres and hold more than 5,400 burials. A city ordinance created the cemetery in 1883, and it was formally laid out in 1885 as a public burial ground for both white and African American residents. The site was deliberately placed outside the town. Hendersonville later prohibited burials inside city limits, citing public health, property values and nuisance concerns.

Oakdale was laid out in the segregated era, and the highway still marks that division. The original white section lies south of Sixth Avenue West. The African American section lies to the northeast, and Prince Drive runs through its older part. The grounds grew in stages, and each addition shows up in the layout:

• 1913 and 1943: additions to the grounds, the second known as the Annex
• 1936: a World War I memorial area of twenty lots
• 1938: a Jewish section of roughly two-thirds of an acre for Agudas Israel, where the oldest burial dates to 1943
• 1951: the City Mausoleum and an 11-foot World War II memorial listing 114 county residents, though not everyone named on it is buried at Oakdale
• 1950s: an expansion of the African American section to the north

The grounds also include a paupers' cemetery. Some of the stones are older than Oakdale itself. When the Methodist Episcopal Church and First Presbyterian Church built new buildings, some graves and headstones from their churchyards were moved here. The National Register survey also notes that a grassy northeast corner of the old African American section may contain unmarked burials, a possibility that has never been tested. Oakdale was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on Feb. 5, 2014.

The sergeant on the north side

Walter Bryson was born in Hendersonville in 1876, the son of Myra Hills. In 1899 he married Hannah Liggin. In late December of that year he traveled to Moultrieville, South Carolina, near Charleston, and enlisted in Company F of the 9th Cavalry. The Army sent him straight to Fort Huachuca in Cochise County, Arizona.

He re-enlisted every three years and at times served with Company H of the 10th Cavalry, eventually reaching the rank of sergeant. Around 1915, while stationed at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, he married Dora Mallory. In June 1917 he came home to Hendersonville on furlough before a posting to the Philippine Islands. He died suddenly on July 10, 1917, of unknown causes, and was buried at Oakdale. Because his enlistment came long after 1865, he should not be described as a Civil War veteran, even though one news caption has called him one.

"I found his obelisk and read it and realized he was a Buffalo soldier."

Fox, a collector of military artifacts, then designed a mannequin display for the Henderson County Heritage Museum using original clothing and equipment. It shows Bryson as he might have looked in 1916 in northern Mexico during the campaign against Pancho Villa. The details include a 1904 saddle, a 1903 Springfield rifle and an early pivot holster for a Colt .45. Local historian Ronnie Pepper Sr. has said Bryson re-enlisted at a lower rank so he could serve at West Point, teaching cavalry skills to officers and cadets.

The Oct. 9 marker comes from the Commission's Neighborhood History Project. That program documents the stories, photographs and landmarks of the city's neighborhoods, and its first phase covered West End, Peacock Town, Harris Street, Black Bottom and Brooklyn. Sam Hayes, the Commission's staff liaison, is the contact for questions at [email protected].

Bryson is one of several people on the north side whose lives say a lot about the town around them. Simpson D. Dogan moved to Hendersonville from South Carolina in 1902 and opened a textile and apparel business. By 1905 he was one of the town's most prominent African American property owners, and by 1915 he had moved his French Dry Cleaning and Pressing business to a spot near the courthouse. After his death in 1918, his wife Georgia ran the business. James Pilgrim, who lived from 1915 to 1988, founded Pilgrim Funeral Home. He was also a leader in the state morticians' association, served on the Ninth Avenue School board and hosted a Sunday spiritual-music program on WHKP.

What Voices of Oakdale is built to cover

Voices of Oakdale is an original, fully staged theatrical tour. It was written and directed by Hendersonville playwright Katie Winkler and members of the Historic Preservation Commission, and it is presented with the Hendersonville Theatre. According to the city, its stories run from the people who first settled the area to those who helped build Hendersonville's many racial and ethnic communities. Wolfe's Angel is part of it too. Scenes are performed at stops around the grounds, so each tour involves about an hour of steady walking.

Tickets went on sale Sept. 28. You can buy them at the Hendersonville Visitor Information Center, 201 S. Main St., phone (828) 693-9708, or through the city's online reservation page. The city recommends buying in advance. Wear comfortable shoes and dress for the weather.

Three stones on the south side

Even the south side, where Wolfe's Angel stands, has graves that rarely get mentioned alongside it. The city's self-guided route passes these three:

1. Lewis Tunstall, 1857–1890. Tunstall was a railroad engineer from Giles, Virginia, who regularly ran the Saluda Grade. On June 17, 1890, the brakes failed on a train headed from Hendersonville to Spartanburg. He was one of three people killed in the wreck, which led to changes in railroad procedures. His tree-shaped marker is an example of Victorian funerary art.
2. Leila Davidson Hansell, the "Sunshine Lady." She died in 1915 and was buried in a glass-tiled vault designed to let sunlight in. In 1937 the city covered the grave with a concrete box.
3. The early mayors. Thomas A. Allen was a physician and Hendersonville's first elected mayor. William A. Smith was an attorney who served as mayor and town attorney, wrote the town charter and helped develop Laurel Park. Michael Schenck served as mayor and later as an associate justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court.

The Jewish section adds another part of the town's story. Hendersonville Lightning has reported that Agudas Israel bought its burial land from the city in the 1930s and that Jewish merchants played a big part in downtown retail.

Walking it on your own schedule

Guided walks at Oakdale are not new. Local walks in 2021, 2023 and 2024 covered the cemetery's early residents and its Black and Jewish sections. The bigger change came last fall. At the Oakdale Ramble on Oct. 25, 2025, the city launched a self-guided tour and a scavenger hunt for kids. The tour lives online as Legends of Oakdale, with directions counted in paces. From Dogan's grave, for example, it sends you 30 paces toward Sixth Avenue West to reach Bryson, then back across Highway 64 to Section F to find Tunstall. The map says it is not a complete list of burials. Its stops are on both sides of the road.

Oakdale's records show how much of Hendersonville's history comes down through families. If you're settling a Henderson County estate and want a local broker who knows that history, Amanda Hill and Hill Real Estate Group are glad to talk it through, starting with a complimentary home valuation.