Economic problems, court judgements, land sales and acquisitions altered the cemetery to approximately 48 acres by 1969.

Burials include many prominent politicians, educators, physicians, ministers, business leaders, military service members, ancestors of famous individuals and ordinary citizens.

The Oakland Cemetery was built on land which Thomas Lagow was awarded for emigrating to Texas before March 2, 1836.

Oliver Perry Bowser and William Henry Lemmon, real estate brokers, purchased over 232 acres from N. C. Floyd's daughters in 1888.

[3] O. S. Riggen purchased 30 acres that comprise NW 1/2 of Block 4 of the Floyd estate from Bowser and Lemmon with the idea of establishing a cemetery outside the city limits.

On 6 June 1891, the Texas Secretary of State approved the incorporation of Oakland Cemetery Company.

"[5] While old oak trees were kept, landscape gardeners added rose bushes and graveled pathways to the land.

[9] The Oakland Cemetery Company, in an 1899 lot owners meeting, said that "the grounds shall be limited exclusively to the purchasers respectively of lots therein; and that 25 per cent of the sum received in the sale of each and every lot in all time to come shall be, and is hereby set apart and made a perpetual fund, to be loaned upon the best securities by three trustees, one to be selected by the company and two by the lot-owners: and the interest received there form devoted to the care and keeping of the grounds, graves, etc.."[10] Several court cases arose when the Oakland Cemetery Company borrowed from various banks and individuals in the 1890s.

The county sheriff sold 30 acres each to E. O. Tenison and Guy Sumpter who six months later conveyed the property to the newly formed People's Cemetery Association.

The case was eventually brought to the Texas Supreme Court which ruled that land dedicated for a cemetery could not be sold to resolve a debt.

[12] The Dallas Morning News summed up the results with the headline “Can't Mortgage Cemeteries.”[13] Burials only occurred in Floyd's Block 1.

The Texas Graduate Nurses Association sold much of their section to Oakland Cemetery Lot Owners in 1997.

Odd S Riggen, the man credited with the first purchase of land on which to Oakland Cemetery was built, died before it opened.

A stroll through Oakland cemetery will reveal the names of individuals whose families are in the written history of Dallas: Dealey, Thornton, Hobby, Bolanz, Murphy, O'Connor, Blaylock, Samuell, Grauwyler, Armstrong, Zang, Belo, Jalonick.

[22] Subsequent superintendents and sextons recreated interment cards and made lists of burials from books that escaped the fire.

"Oakland Cemetery to Be Improved, Owners' Association Announce," – Dallas Morning News, March 2, 1926, p. 14.

"Louisiana Plan Adopted by Lagow District Owners in Effort to Get Segregation," Dallas Morning News.

[Yeggs = burglar or safecracker] "Pair Held After Disappearance Week Ago of Curly Woodruff; Warned, His Wife Moves Away" Dallas Morning News, February 8, 1931 ["the body of a man was hastily loaded into a car and carried away by two men who fled from the pauper section of Oakland Cemetery ..." "Oakland Cemetery To Be Beautified With Landscaping.

"] "Wife's Body Thrown in Grave Without Casket, Man Claims: Dallas Morning News, November 19, 1931, p. 1 "Memorial Day Observed for Person Aiding in Making World Better," May 31, 1933 [includes mention o Mrs. Emma H. Grauwyler who gave land for Dallas parks.

"Oakland Lot Owners to Build Upkeep Fund," Dallas Morning News, December 15, 1933, p. 11.

"Cemetery Society May Ask Federal Improvement Cash, Dallas Morning News, December 23, 1933, p. [page needed] The Daughters of 1812 organization honored Lucy Jeanette Power Cary (1842–1924), wife of Joseph Milton Cary, with a marker as a "Real Daughter of 1812" in 1932.

Roger L. Tennant, an association director, told the Dallas Morning News that the funds for the building came from voluntary subscription.

[29] Other directors were Joseph Agee, Ben Y. Cammack, Henry Exall, Stephen J. Hay, B. Manning, Miss Roberta Reeves, and Judge Town Young.

Fund Drive Launched for Old Cemetery – Dallas Morning News, 22 October 1957, p. 14 Oakland Ave name change – Dallas Morning News, November 13, 1997 Plotting a Course – Historic Cemetery seeks help preserving resting place of some of city's top names.

Christine Wicker, Dallas Morning News, June 27, 1999, section A, p. 33 The Genealogical Society of Utah microfilmed the Oakland Cemetery interment and lot owner cards in 1998.

A Dallas Morning News article announced that the cemetery was officially closed in August 2019 due to lack of operating funds.

Mayor Curtis P. Smith instructed the city engineers to lay out the cemetery in two sections: one for white paupers and the other for Negroes.

[43] Death certificates as early as 1910 and the 1920 revised city code call this cemetery Mount Auburn.

It is difficult to know exactly when burials began in this city cemetery/ (aka Mount Auburn) because the state did not required death certificate until 1908.

Dallas county purchased 6 acres from James A. Crawford and his wife adjacent to the city's property in 1901.