EARLIEST Dated Headstone in Calvary Cemetery - Dallas, TX - First of its Kind on Waymarking.com

A marble obelisk standing about ten feet tall marks Mr. Clark's final resting place. It is topped by an urn that has been broken off, but somehow, the cemetery caretakers have gotten it to rest on its side up there in a seemingly precarious position for some years. The family name, "Clark", is on the plinth, and the inscription reads:

Sacred to
the memory of

P.T. Clark

Died
Apr. 22, 1877.

Aged
30 Years

~~~*~~~

May his soul rest in peace. Amen

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As to the background ...

The sign at the front of the cemetery has the emblem of Uptown Dallas at the bottom, right below a cemetery map, noting your location and indicating this and other signs in the cemetery, which is a stop along a walking tour of the four burial grounds in Uptown. There are inset photos of the old Sacred Heart Cathedral in Dallas, and of Father Joseph Martiniere, with a caption of "Father Joseph Martiniere served as pastor at Sacred Heart Cathedral, as well as founder of St. Joseph's Orphanage in Oak Cliff, from 1874 until his death in 1910." The text reads:

Calvary Cemetery was established here following the land's purchase in 1878 by the Bishop of Galveston, whose diocese stretched all the way to North Texas at the time. It was not, however, the first burying ground in Dallas established for the region's growing Catholic population:

Perhaps the first Catholic settler in Dallas, French immigrant carriage maker Maxime Guillot had settled in the tiny village on the Trinity River in 1852. Guillot's home at Elm and Houston Streets was the site of the early Catholic Masses held in the area. Father Sebastian Augagneur came twice a year from Nacogdoches to minister to the Guillot family and the mostly French and Belgian La Reunion colonists. Burials occurred in the La Reunion (also known as Fishtrap) Cemetery in West Dallas.

Missionary priests continued to visit Dallas until 1872, when the Rev. Marthulin Perrier was sent to establish the first parish, coming by wagon (he was described as being too obese to ride horseback) from San Angelo. Masses in the early years were held in the Odd Fellows Hall on Austin Street. In 1874, Father Joseph Martiniere was in charge of the new Sacred Heart Parish. The first Sacred Heart was built in 1873 on the block that would later be the site of the downtown Post Office.

In 1878, Bishop Claude Marie Dubuis purchased the land from Jacob and Katie Wagner, near the Trinity (now Greenwood) Cemetery, established by William Gaston four years earlier. Written burial records have been lost, but the earliest dated headstone remaining is that of carpenter P.T. Clark, proprietor of the Railroad Planing Mill who died on April 22, 1877, suggesting that the cemetery was in use prior to its purchase from the Wagners.

In 1926, the Diocese bought land adjacent to a family cemetery north of Love Field Airport and established Calvary Hill Cemetery there. The city's expansion and establishment of additional Catholic cemeteries meant that few burials occurred here at "Old Calvary Cemetery" after about 1945.

Many families chose to move graves of relatives to the newer cemeteries, but visitors will find markers remaining in Old Calvary Cemetery that celebrate some of the people buried here who contributed to the rich history and life of Dallas.

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NB: Besides a marker in the general area where La Réunion was in West Dallas, the aforementioned Fishtrap Cemetery is the lone surviving remnant of the colony. Bonnie Parker was buried there with her family after she and Clyde Barrow were gunned down, but she has since been disinterred and moved to Dallas. Of course, Reunion Arena and Reunion Tower were modern nods to the colony, and while the arena now belongs to the ages, the tower still figures prominently in the Dallas landscape.

FIRST - Classification Variable: Person or Group Date of FIRST: 04/22/1877 More Information - Web URL: [Web Link]

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