Comments below are from Bill H., a former member of DCPA, now deceased.
The marker for the 28 year old person I believe is the father of my grandfather, William Asa Holford. He was buried in Slapfoot cemetery, and I have believed this was his grave, as other family lore attests to his death at age 28, leaving his widow Desdemona Clementine Sewell with their only child, William Asa Holford, age 2.
The widow lived near Haught’s store, which at one time had a post office. The widow Holford later married Charles Joyce, who lived next door according to census records. They produced a large family of Joyce children. A sister of Clementine Sewell married John Cullum, who owned the Mesquite newspaper, and later bought the fledgling Garland News, hiring Will Holford as a printer’s devil in his teen years.
Will Holford subsequently bought the Garland News, and published it for a number of years. Articles written in the Garland News told stories of Haught’s store, including one about Mr. Haught himself, who was a large man with a sympathy for those less fortunate. He was uneducated, and kept accounts by drawing pictures of the purchases charged. On presenting a bill to a farmer who had come in to settle accounts, he mentioned a wheel of cheese. The customer objected that he did not get any cheese. He had gotten a grindstone, however. Mr. Haught apologized, saying that he had forgot to put the dot in the middle to show it was a grindstone.
A later article mentions that Will Holford was told his uncle Jerry was buried in Slapfoot cemetery. A portion of land just over the Kaufman county line is mentioned in early writings as Jerry’s Prairie. The father of Edward Holford was William Jennings Holford who is buried in Pleasant Mound Cemetery Dallas, but I have not located it yet.
Haught Cemetery/Slapfoot Cemetery – 5975 Shannon Rd., Mesquite (Former address: 5975 Shannon Loop and E. Lawson Road). Cemetery is on private property and the maintenance is unknown.
