Haught Store (a.k.a. Slapfoot) Cemetery
Tony Hanson
When is an old family cemetery (with burials dating back to 1846) no longer a cemetery? In the case of that Haught Store cemetery located in Mesquite, that apparently happened on January 30, 2025, when a Citation for a Tax Foreclosure Lawsuit was filed in the 160th District Court.
At some point in time prior to that, the Dallas Central Appraisal District decided that the property was no longer going to be designated as a cemetery and thus was subject to taxation. The problem was they could not find any living descendants to send the tax bills to.
The courts were a little more rigorous and did manage to contact descendants and notified them of the pending lawsuit. That was when the Dallas County Pioneer Association (https://dallaspioneer.org/ ) and the Dallas Genealogical Society became aware and got involved.
A quick search of our DGS databases revealed the historical nature of the families involved. (Try it yourself: search for the Haught, Cumby or Farmer surnames using our Universal Search Program at https://dallasgenealogy.org/DGS_Apps/dusp.php).
We were able to identify and contact a group of descendants, and they were successful in fighting the Foreclosure Lawsuit, which was disposed on 15 October 2025.
Find out more about this historic cemetery on our website: https://dallasgenealogy.org/haught-store-a-k-a-slapfoot-cemetery/
