As you are now, so once was I,
As I am now, so you must be,
Prepare for death and eternity.”
The story is told that once, in charcoal, a wag wrote underneath this inscription:
“Be still, my friend, and rest content,
Until I find out just where you went.”
Over on one side of Oakwood Cemetery is the Jewish Cemetery. This plot of ground is said to have been purchased by Mr. Jacob Stern and another citizen, who presented it to the Jewish people of Jefferson for a burying ground. Many Jews have been brought back to the old home town, that their bodies may rest beside loved ones who have gone before.
This cemetery is kept as nicely as these “Chosen people” keep their homes. A low stone wall separates it from Oakwood Cemetery.
Then on the extreme south side of the Oakwood Cemetery is the Catholic Cemetery; this too, is well kept.
In Oakwood proper which burying ground dates from the time of Reconstruction, many bodies were removed from the Cemetery, in what is today known as “Sandtown.” Following the Civil War many Federal soldiers were buried there. This is one mass of shrubs, graves and trees, with few markers, and only a guess can tell one where the soldiers in blue, who died in this part of the world, found their resting place.