Mills Lane in Irving was named in honor of this family. Nicolas was born April 17, 1823, in France to Francis Joseph and Charlotte Gertrude (Figurey) Farine. In 1858 he came to the La Reunion Colony settlement near Dallas, via New Orleans. He had a wife and a child; both were lost shortly after their […]
There are many stories about what was known aS the Garland Cyclone. Today it would be called a tornado. However, either description would be correct. Stephen Edward Nicholson, 1890-1927 This man was actually the mayor of Garland, TX during the late 1920’s. I do not know to much of his early life, but concerning his […]
Letter from William Gill Cooper, northeast of Rowlett, Texas, tells about attending the 1902 Old Soldiers Reunion at Dallas Texas. 150,000 Visitors Trooped Into Dallas. Letter from W. G. Cooper of Rowlett: June 1902, to his nephew, Robert A. Cooper at Florence, Miss. Dear Bob, I guess you think I am rather slow in writing […]
The Crutchfield House, Dallas’s First Hotel, was originally a log structure, built around 1852 which burned in the fire of 1860. The first hotel Dallas ever knew was a historic landmark in this city for many years. It was built about 1850 on the bluff of the Trinity near the eastern end of the present […]
ED W. DANIEL – Oldest White Rock Wake Area Native Recalls All Day Wagon Journey to Downtown Dallas, Texas Dallas Daily Times Herald, March 28, 1926 White Rock, geographically, isn’t a bit nearer to Dallas than it was when the first white settlers drove their ox teams through the creek which bears its name, and […]
RAILROAD REMOVED FROM PACIFIC AVENUE Robert Wilonsky for Dallas Observer: I received an intriguing phone call from preservation expert, author and activist Virginia McAlester, who told me about the great railroad “Spike-Pulling Ceremony” that took place at the corner of Pacific, Live Oak and St. Paul in 1921. You know that image of the golden […]
PADGITT BROTHERS, WELL KNOWN SADDLE MAKERS Dallas, Texas 1867-1960s To tell the story of the Famous Texas Padgitt Brothers Tom, Clint, and Jesse we must start at their original home of Gallatin, Tennessee. The Padgitt Brothers Parents were James Robert Padgitt and Mary Jane Bond Padgitt they had a family which consisted of 5 children: […]
ALEXANDER W. & SARAH SHELTON HUFFMAN PERRY Namesake of Carrollton, Texas Sarah Perry Was Buried On A Hill In The North Pasture. The year was 1844, one year before Texas would become a state, a small family in a covered wagon with an extra team, three horses, and little money, made its way South. Through […]
175 Yr. Old STATE CHAMPION SHUMARD RED OAK TREE Garland Memorial Cemetery Looses Historic Red Oak Tree About 100 feet from the Champion Incense Cedar tree in Garland Memorial Park along South Garland Avenue once stood the majestic State Champion Shumard Red Oak. This oak was recognized in 1999 by the Texas Forest Service as […]
More than any other development, Munger Place set the tone and provided the impetus for East Dallas’s growth in the first two decades of the twentieth century. In 1905, cotton gin manufacturer Robert S. Munger began selling lots in what he hoped would become one of the finest residential developments in the Southwest, Munger Place. […]
JOHN STEVE WYRICK & ELLEN BEATRICE MERRIMAN Early Garland Area Farmer & Merchant. In the early years of this century, the central focus of each home during the winter months was the fireplace with its roaring fire. The whole family sat in that one room where their “central heat” was located. At least a portion […]
We lived on Swiss Avenue until about 1924. By that time, the city had grown out all around us, Munger Place was filling up fast, and dad had bought twenty two acres of land which is now bounded by Junius, Paulus, and the Lakewood Country Club grounds. He bought this sometime before 1924 and did […]
Adventures of Lancaster, Texas Native: William Leonard Smith was born in Lancaster on March 1, 1874 to Mary Frances “Molly” Winniford and Thomas A. Smith, both Texas natives. Molly was the daughter of Rebecca Goodloe Douglas and Norvell Robertson Winniford, Dallas pioneer and county sheriff 1867-1870. William Leonard had at least one sibling, a sister […]
A horse, a new saddle, and a brand spanking new pill bag. With these as his sole possessions, a new doctor rode into Rowlett around five o’clock in the afternoon on October 3, 1892. With the ink scarcely dry on his diploma, a genuine sheepskin, incidentally, W. A. Maupin became Rowlett’s young “Doc.” Today, (1953) […]
So as time went by Lucy tried to be a mother to the children (children of Pat’s brother) and they haven’t lost their love for her. She tells Percy Fay that she put a lot of diapers on him and told him that his hips were so small she had a time trying to fasten […]
“All the roads were white with covered wagons headed west when we left Jefferson City, Mo., to come to Texas, in 1871,” said E. B. Basye, 1418 Lindsley avenue. “Some of our relatives who had preceded us, had settled on Duck Creek (now Garland) in Dallas County, and had long been urging us to join […]
PAUL MAURICE AKIN Wylie Elementary School Principal, 1956-1976 P. M. Akin Elementary School Named in His Honor in 1988 Paul Maurice Akin taught and was the Elementary Principal to many, sometimes spanning “three generations.” He was born April 8, 1912 in the Clear Water Community, the son of John Weldon Akin Sr. and Hester (Hillis) […]
JOHN H. MCDONOUGH (1858-1938), a Kentuckian who came to Texas in 1884 as a member of the federal civil service in the post office department, entered private industry in Dallas in 1900 by buying control of the Murray Ginning Systems Company, manufacturers of a full line of cotton gin machinery, later expanded to include cottonseed […]
Captain William H. Gaston, Confederate soldier, banker, financier, and empire builder, designed and constructed his own Greek Revival home in 1873 on the northeast corner of Swiss Avenue and St. Joseph Street. This elegant mansion, headquarters of the 400-acre plantation that became the town of East Dallas, was demolished in 1927 to construct the Dallas […]
You can access the Cedars neighborhood traveling south from downtown Dallas using five streets: Harwood, St. Paul, Akard, Griffin, and Lamar. Each street crosses Interstate-30 with a standard Texas highway overpass. The freeway, once part of the Cedars, is now a barrier clearly defining a neighborhood that until one hundred years ago served as stepping-stone […]
