Horton Family Cemetery
LOCATION: South of I-30, east of Walton Walker (Loop 12), Dallas, Texas (Arcadia Park). Construction around the cemetery has restricted access. At present, (early 2025) the best way to reach the cemetery is from the North Bagley Street loop located in the La Loma trailer park: The cemetery is to the North.
The cemetery contains a Texas Historical Society Marker describing the pioneer Horton Family.
There are many field stone markers and unmarked graves. Several bases remain but inscribed portions no longer in evidence. This cemetery is very unkempt and overgrown with vines and underbrush.
Originally 11 acres when it was created, today’s cemetery is reportedly only 2 acres in size.
- MAPSCO: 42X
- GPS: 32.7603989, -96.9127884 (Google)
- On DGS Cemetery Map
- On Google Maps
- On Findagrave
Texas Historic Commission Marker
Enoch and Martha Horton left Virginia with their ten children and settled here as members of the Peters Colony in 1844. Family history recounts that their son, James Horton, set aside this site as a family cemetery in 1848. Enoch (d. 1851) and Martha (d. 1850) are believed to be buried here in unmarked graves. James and his sister, Sarah Horton Cockrell, operated one of the first grist mills in this area, and James donated land for a school and railroad right-of-way. Many Horton family members and other early settlers are buried here. The last interment was in 1951. Incise on reverse: Gift of Screna Horton Campbell, Barney C. Jones (2001)
DGS volunteers inventoried this cemetery in March 1992. Markers from previous surveys that were no longer in evidence in 1992 are noted. Sources consulted for the integrated survey are Old Cemeteries of Dallas County by Willie Flowers Carlisle, 1948; typescript by W. R. Conger, teacher at Sunset High School and students of his Civics Class, 1961; and typescript by Barney C. Jones (Horton Family descendant), 1985, referred to as Carlisle, Conger or Jones.
The burials published by the Dallas Genealogical Society in Dallas County, Texas; Genealogical Data from Early Cemeteries, Volume V have been updated through a cross-check of death certificates and of death notices in the Dallas Morning News. Adjacent to Horton Family Cemetery is the Horton slave cemetery, more recently called the Mount Olive Cemetery. This area plus additional land was to have become the Crestview Memorial Park. That project did not come to fruition.
Several other cemeteries were located in West Dallas County near Eagle Ford, Texas, through the years. The earliest is the Horton Family Cemetery on the land of James Horton. The Horton family also had a slave cemetery.
“Births and Deaths in Eagle Ford, Texas” by Barbara A Ware, published in The Dallas Journal, Volume 57,October 2011, Page 89.
Early on, James Horton designated 11 of his acres for the Horton Cemetery, dividing the plot into three sections: the upper third for Horton friends and neighbors; the middle third for Horton family and allied family members; the lower third established for the African-Americans in the area.
“Horton family established the bygone Eagle Ford community“, an article written by Gayla Brooks and published July 22nd, 2011 in the Oak Cliff Advocate.
Established in 1848, The Horton Family Cemetery was originally 11 acres square set aside for family burials. It was about 4 acres as late as 1960. We have no legal record as to how 7 acres are no longer part of the cemetery.
“Horton Family Cemetery“ by Susanna Clark-Smith, published in 2005 on the cemeteries-of_tx.com website.
The approximate present day (2025) boundaries of the cemetery are outlined in purple in the image to the left. All of the land around the cemetery has been cleared as part of new development activity.
More detail is can be seen from this 2022 DCAD drawing.
The best means of access (North Bagley Street) as of January 2025 is identified by the red Google map marker.
Records Available from the Dallas Municipal Archives
Public Works Survey Division Cemetery Files, 1887-2005
Survey documents, ownership records, notes, maps, and photographs documenting the boundaries and history of cemeteries within the city limits of the City of Dallas, as well as a number of cemeteries within Dallas County, Texas, and contiguous counties.
- Crestview Memorial Park: A.k.a. Horton Family, Horton Slave or Colored Section, Mt. Olive Cemetery – Block or Abstract # 8328
- Horton Family: A.k.a. Mount Olive, Crestview Memorial – Block or Abstract # 8328
- Mt. Olive Colored: A.k.a Crestview, Horton – Block or Abstract # 8328
- North Dallas Memorial Park: A.k.a. Mount Olive Baptist Church of Eagle Ford (Colored), Horton Family & Crestview Memorial Park, Inc. – Block or Abstract # 634-1/4
