OLDEST Marked Grave in Oak Cliff Cemetery - Dallas, TX - First of its Kind on Waymarking.com

Kentucky native William S. Beaty came to Texas during its early days as a Republic and received a grant of 640 acres of land. He and his brother, Josiah, who arrived in 1836, settled along the Trinity River in what is now Dallas County. The settlement that developed around their property first was called Hord's Ridge and became known as Oak Cliff in 1887.

In 1846, William Beaty deeded 10 acres of his land for a public burial ground and indicated in the deed that his brother, Josiah, already had been interred on the site. The deed also specified that the cemetery should be subject to no one sect but should forever remain open to all. The oldest marked grave in the cemetery, that of Martha A. Wright, is dated 1844.

Many prominent Dallas County pioneers and citizens have been buried here, including Judge William Hord, for whom Hord's Ridge was named. Two former Dallas mayors, George Sergeant and George Sprague, and a son of Gen. Sam Houston, Col. William Rogers Houston, are buried here.

Oak Cliff Cemetery remains a valuable and historic link to the early settlement of Dallas.

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Miss Wright's Findagrave entry (see URL) has some interesting reading, culled from several articles from The Dallas Morning News:

"According to an article in The Dallas Morning News on Oct. 1, 1935, her grave was said to be 'one of the earliest marked graves in an existing Dallas cemetery.' An article in The Dallas Morning News on May 12, 1946, said, 'A foot-and-a-half high grayish slab of marble, probably hauled overland from Shreveport, marks the spot in which she rests. At the top is the word Farewell, below are carved clasped hands of departure and over words and hands and dates the soft, slow, orange lichen grows caressingly. Three other similar stones with farewells and clasped hands are in that Wright lot, all over tots of a few months or years.'"

Time and the elements have not been kind to this and several of those other headstones since those articles were published. If "Farewell" is still discernible, it is faint at best -- it doesn't help that the headstone is on its back, where water can wear things away -- but the inscription is a little easier to read, with some help from Findagrave:

Martha A.
Wright

Born
May 24, 1844

Died
July 16, 1844

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Note that the lichen is gone: Someone cleaned this stone at some point. Unfortunately, this cemetery has been visited by vandals, and today, there are plenty of indications that it draws partiers who have no other place to enjoy themselves. The headstone could be on its back to deter further vandalism. Findagrave shows it standing upright.

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