Restoration Effort Underway at Warren Ferris Cemetery
By Susanne Starling
This article is reprinted with permission from the Dallas County Historical Commission. The article was originally published in the Dallas County Chronicle, Volume 18, Issue 3, Summer 2019, page 4.
The Friends of the Warren Ferris Cemetery are restoring the neglected landscape of this historic cemetery. Located just five blocks east of the southern tip of White Rock Lake at St. Francis and San Leandro, the cemetery was established in the mid-1800s on the Warren Angus Ferris homestead.
Originally a mountain trapper, Ferris was among the first to chart the marvels of what became Yellowstone National Park. As a Texas pioneer, he came to the Three Forks of the Trinity River as a surveyor in the late 1830s. Camping on the banks of White Rock Creek, he surveyed land that eventually became Dallas and Dallas County and then moved to what became his 640-acre homestead.
The Ferris Cemetery was used by the Ferris family and nearby neighbors from 1847-1906. There are about 100 graves on the approximately one-half-acre site that remains and includes those of Ferris himself and those of other early settlers from the Pemberton, Sage, Herndon, and Bell families. There is historical evidence that the cemetery also contains the graves of Freedmen with the last person being buried there being R. L. Taylor, an African American minister, who died in 1906.
Over the years, the cemetery fell into disrepair with all but one of the tombstones having been stolen or vandalized. In the 1980s, the surrounding neighborhood began reclaiming the cemetery and arranged for SMU to conduct an on-site archaeological investigation. Shortly thereafter, the cemetery received a Texas historical marker and later, the cemetery itself was designated as a Historic Texas Cemetery.
More recently, as part of its new restoration effort, the Friends Group has been skillfully removing the dense thicket of invasive vegetation that has overtaken the site. The group hopes to complement this clearing work with natural surface pathways, signage that identifies the types of plants that exist there, the installation of birdhouses and a water source, an educational program with Sanger Elementary School (which is diagonally across the street), the placement of a marker that contains the names of those who are interred in the cemetery, and the creation of a fund for an on-going maintenance program.
Cemeteries are important keys to Texas’ past, serving as tangible reminders of settlement patterns and providing information about historic events, familial relationships, and culture. The effort presently being undertaken by the Friends will help ensure that the Ferris Cemetery will have a future as well.
Individuals and organizations hoping to assist the Friends of the Warren Ferris Cemetery in its restoration effort are encouraged to contact Susanne Starling at susstar@hotmail.com.
Additional Links:
