JAMES REID COLE, one of the noted educators of Texas and the South, came to Dallas in 1889 as the founder and president of a “Classical and Military school” which came to be known as the Cole School. Invited by a number of leading citizens to open his private school here, Cole conducted it for […]
John A. Dickson (1863-1929) brought his family from Mississippi to Dallas County in 1894, where he rented land and continued farming. Ten years before, on January 31, 1884, he had married Annie America Davis. To this marriage was born: William T in 1885; Vollie Lucille in 1888; Lorena Tina in 1891 and Neva Elizabeth in […]
My name is Largent Parks, maybe we’d better say Largent Parks, Senior, since there is now a Junior, and also a Third. I was born in 1907 at 4321 Swiss Avenue, which is the block between Peak and Carroll. My father had just built a large frame, two-story house with great rambling porches all around […]
“I have called Dallas my home since 1870,” said B. F. Sala, 2502 Parnell street. “My father, who was in the theater business, left Galveston in 1869 and followed the terminus of the Houston & Texas Central Railroad from place to place until it reached Corsicana, and on the way, built opera houses at Navasota, […]
I Was A Nurse’s Aide During World War II. My father, Herman H. Buhrer, owned the Live Oak Dairy in south Dallas, but had sold it just before war broke out on December 7, 1941. He and my mother, Julia, then purchased a farm in Richardson and moved there. I had been living at home, […]
In the fall of 1841 the families of Hamp Rattan and Capt. Mabel Gilbert, with a few other men, reached Bird’s Fort (near present day Arlington), and a little later the family of John Beeman. Late in November, 1841, a wagon left Bird’s Fort and was sent back to Red river for provisions. It stayed […]
Terrilyn Cade Krieter reports her family received word yesterday that, after 68 years, her Uncle Albert F. “Buddy” Mills (20), who was Missing In Action in Korea is finally coming home. She says that a positive ID was made this past July and her family met with the Army yesterday for updated details. The family […]
Oversize, reflectorized exit signs on Dallas expressways are among the more striking reminders of the community’s past. A particular example is the sign on Interstate 30 near the new Lake Ray Hubbard pointing to Chiesa Road, which is named for Giovanni Chiesa, pioneer landowner and settler in the area on the Dallas County side of […]
An Irishman by the name of Patrick McEntee (1846-1921) then purchased the land in 1893. The Patrick McEntee family had been living in a community known as “Irish Ridge” near Forney, Texas before moving to the Rowlett area. Mr. McEntee had grown increasingly aware that the religious needs of the Rowlett area Catholics were not […]
George Dotson was born July 15, 1873 in Dalton, Georgia. At the young age of 15 years, he left his home and traveled to Texas by covered wagon with friends from Georgia. They arrived in the Rose Hill area of Dallas County in 1888. He later moved to Rowlett, where he worked as a farmer. […]
If one kind of tree were accorded primacy in Dallas history, it would probably be the oak. That seems to be the case, judging by the persistent popularity of the oak tree in neighborhood and street names, including Oak Cliff, Oak Lawn, Oak Grove, Oak Crest, Oak Hill, Oak Park, and such major thoroughfares as […]
Cement City was not even a thought when the Horton family came from Missouri in 1844, and received several Peters Colony land grants. They settled near the West Fork of the Trinity River, Eagle Mountain Lake, Chalk Hill, and Eagle Ford. There James Horton farmed and had a grist mill. Sarah Horton married Alexander Cockrell, […]
Sam Cammarata, 30 of 2821 State, an instructor at the Sky Ranch Airport, was killed and his student, Bill Covington, 19, of 3018 Alabama was fatally injured when their light, two passenger plane crashed at the airport three miles south of the Veterans Hospital at Lisbon and about a half mile east of Lancaster Road […]
It is not an uncommon occurrence for a residence to be converted into a church, but when the case is reversed, and a church is changed into a residence, it is a very unusual affair, in fact, even the old settlers of Dallas, when the matter is considered, will no doubt scratch their heads thoughtfully […]
Albert K. Kirby along with his wife and children left Piineville, Missouri and headed for Rockwall in 1882. They came in a covered wagon bringing their household goods and cow with them. They had to blaze a trail and ford rivers and streams, the larger ones being Arkansas, Canadian and Red Rivers. At some of […]
For some reason, I was looking over the this photo of the “Fighting Garland Owls” this morning when I suddenly realized that the members of this football team represented some of the most deepest roots of the early pioneers of the Garland area. Before we get into family ties to these team members, it is […]
Leita Bel Wood (1910-1994) was born northeast of Rowlett, Texas in the Liberty Grove community. She was the daughter of James W. “Polk” and Ida White Spence Wood. After Leita Bel was grown, she operated a store on Elm Grove Road. Leita Bel latter married William L. “Bill” Nichols (1908-1985). Bill always stood out as […]
Both Thomas Edward Nix and Virginia Peak were born in South Carolina. Thomas was born in Barnwell County in 1829, while Virginia was born on 17 October 1837 in Lancaster County to John H. Peak and Mary Sylvester. On 20 August 1854, they were married by a Baptist preacher at the home of Virginia’s mother […]
Pioneer member Wilbur Roe has shed some light on his early years spent at the Wylie Hotel. Wylie had several hotels back in the earlier days. The drummers would take the train to the Wylie Depot and then check into one of the hotels before calling on the local merchants in an effort to drum […]
There was once a Pig Stand in every part of town. Before the War, the Woodrow kids congregated at the Gaston Avenue Pig Stand out on Garland Road where Gaston ended. That is, when they decided not to go congregate at Sammy’s on Greenville Avenue. The kids from North Dallas had their Pig Stand on […]
