From the Richmond Dispatch, 8/27/1855, p. 2, c. 3

OAKWOOD CEMETERY. – One of the most lovely spots any where within the reach of Richmond – is to be laid off into sections as soon as the City Engineer can find time to do so, and then properly fenced in, preparatory to being offered for sale to the public. The committee having charge of these grounds, will so arrange them as to provide a suitable place for the colored people, and at the same time reserve space enough in the sixty-four acres for the erection of a work house, if the Council in future should determine to establish such an institution. We had hoped, when this purchase was made, that the burying ground would be put in order at once, for the use of the residents of Jefferson Ward, knowing how inconvenient it was for them to take their dead to Shockoe Hill or Hollywood, but the committee having charge of the subject did not act very promptly, and the consequence was that a new Council was elected, and the cemetery put under the control of new members, before any important action had been taken or any definite plan agreed upon, as to how the grounds should be laid out and arranged. This new committee, knowing very little of the action of their predecessors, had done comparatively nothing until a week or two past, when their attention was again called to it by a resolution adopted at the Council Board. Since then, we believe, they have moved in the matter, and as soon as the Engineer can get time to prepare a plan of the cemetery, we suppose the lots will be put in the market. We have received several communications from persons residing on Church and Union Hills, asking to be informed at what time the plan of the grounds would be perfected and the sections offered for sale, but being unable to answer them correctly, we have always referred them to the keeper, who resides on the premises. Families residing in the eastern portion of the city would no doubt like to purchase lots in this new cemetery at once, in order to have them improved and beautified, and therefore it is that some anxiety is manifested to see the proposed plan

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