Information on Cory Cemetery in Balch Springs
by Marilyn Kosanke
In the 1930s and 1940s (and probably decades before) there was periodically terrible flooding of Hickory Creek all up and down the section of the creek that runs north and south on the west of LBJ.
Quoting “Marie Hughes – History” from Balch Springs News, July 24, 1980:
“….The area south and west of the corner of Hickory Tree and Lake June has [been] flooded so long that hay couldn’t be cut all summer long. There wasn’t a dry place for the man to put his hogs so he hitched up his team to a sled and hauled off the tombstones from the graves in the Cemetery right on the corner. He threw them in Hickory Creek. I am not for certain but I believe it was members of the Cory and Teeter families. The outline of four of these graves could be seen on the parking lot at Pate’s Store at one time.”
Interestingly, Marie Hughes wrote an article five years later in which she appears to describe the same cemetery, but this time she refers to it as the Cox Cemetery. In an article entitled “Balch Springs to be on Historical Trails Map” from Balch Springs News, August 29, 1985, Marie Hughes wrote:
“…The Cox family cemetery was on the corner of Lake June and Hickory Tree Roads on the Southwest side. When Merle Redd worked for Dallas County in 1918 he was cleaning up the cemetery before the county widened the roads. When the fence was reset it was erected across the graves. Later the roads were widened about the time of World War II and all the graves are under the road now.”
Merle Redd was still alive in 1985 and living in Balch Springs so it is reasonable to assume Mrs. Hughes gained the information in her 1985 article directly from him.
Are the Cox and Cory cemeteries the same? Probably so, since two private family cemeteries so close together seems unlikely (assuming Mrs. Hughes was correct about the location being the southwest corner), but no documentation has been found that would answer the question. Perhaps between 1980 and 1985 Mrs. Hughes learned she was wrong about it being the Cory Cemetery. Marie Hughes is deceased, so we will probably never understand the discrepancy between her two articles. Whether there were two cemeteries or just one at the corner of Lake June and Hickory Tree roads, it is obvious they are “lost to history.”
Description from Jim Wheat’s website:
59A-K COX FAMILY CEMETERY Southwest corner of Hickory Tree and Lake June, Balch Springs, 75180. (Note: There is a cemetery at this same location that is listed as CORY FAMILY CEMETERY“)
