By Frances James (1922 – 2019)
The Abraham Carver Cemetery is located just east of the 2600 Block of Masters Drive on Sandsprings Drive, about nine miles southeast of the Dallas County Courthouse. The cemetery is located on Peters Colonist Abraham Carver’s Survey No. 263.
The approximate one-half acre of land is within Sandsprings Park. This City of Dallas Park is a section of the one hundred and twenty-seven acre residential subdivision developed by the Crow Company in the 1980s on land formerly cultivated for cotton and corn. When the park area was set aside, a wroght iron fence was placed for security around the cemetery that contains six generations of the Carver family.
The deed dated May 7, 1850 for this original Peters Colony land grant acquired by Abraham Carver (1806 – 1883) was for 320 acres. Throughout the years the land was sold off to various families until in 1885 Elizabeth Carver (1820 – 1885), Abraham’s widow, willed the remaining fifty acres to their daughter, Clarissa Clara Carver Spradling (1833 – 1927). Clara Spradling later willed the land to the Carver’s adopted grandson, Jess Rogers and his wife Rose in 1911. It was through Roger’s descendants that the Crow Company purchased the land in 1981.
The earliest marked grave in the cemetery is that of Abraham Carver and the next burial was that of Elizabeth, his wife. Two of Abraham and Elizabeth’s children are in this plot, Clara Spradling and Sarah Brown (1833 – 1906). Elizabeth’s adopted daughter, Hattie Bell Carver Rogers (1874 – 1889) and her husband William Rogers (1870 – 1925) whose grave site is marked by a Woodman of the World stone here. Five generations of Sara Carver Brown’s family are included in this site. Sara’s daughter Nettie Boener (1852 – 1889), Nettie’s daughter-in-law Blanche Bell Bray (1881 – 1925), Blanche’s granddaughter (1916 – 19??), and Beverly Denny who died as an infant in 1940. The last burial, the one for Cris Carver, born in 1866, took place in 1946.
Abraham Carver’s land was near the wagon trail called Scyene Road and from time to time, if someone died along the trail they were buried in this cemetery. The community of Scyene disappeared after 1873 when the route of the Texas and Pacific Railroad bypassed the trail making Mesquite the depot town.
This branch of the Carver family is descended from Michael Carver in Philadelphia in 1727 to Christian Carver (1759 – 1838). Christian served in the Revolutionary War and received a pension.
In 1844 Abraham, son of Christian moved from Ohio to Texas along with his brother Solomon and his nephew, Albert. Abraham Carver first married Sarah Pettijohn in Illinois and they had two children, Christian and Mary. Sarah died in 1835. When Abraham and his second wife Elizabeth Cline who he had married in 1836 in Sangamon County came, they brought all of their children. Later another nephew, Daniel S. Carver and his grandmother came to Texas. Mary Ziegler Carver died in 1869 and is buried near Kleberg, Texas. There is a street in Mesquite named for Daniel Carver.
Abraham and Elizabeth had three daughters, Sarah, Clemsie, and Clarissa. The family was involved in the farm that was closer to Mesquite than it was to Dallas raising cotton and corn plus they had a large garden. The Carvers also had a dairy operation and tool milk to Dallas in a wagon. During the summer time the milk cans were covered with wet sheets in an attempt to keep the milk cool on the long trip to Dallas. White Rock Creek separated this farmland from Dallas and during the rainy season Mesquite was the shopping/tradimg area for a portion of the year.
The story that has been passed down through the family was that Clarissa was a friend of Belle Starr (Myra Belle Shirley). Her parents, the John Shirleys, owned a nearby farm. Clarissa went with Belle Starr when she delivered food to members of the “gang” of horse thieves that hid out in the area. Frank and Jesse James and Cole and James Younger frequented the Shirley farm for fresh horses.
All of this area between the eastern city limits of Dallas and Mesquite remained rural and was actively farmed until the mid 1900s. Sanger Brothers had a tenant farm in this area. Families kept their farm land that was passed to the next generation. This area between Dallas and Mesquite is now, in 2006, developing but there are still many acres of land waiting for the next development. Thee new residents may not have ever heard of the community called Scyene.
James, Frances, “Dallas County History – From the Ground Up, Vol. I,” 2007.
