By Frances James (1922 – 2019)
It is difficult to believe that within five miles of the eighth largest city in the United States, Dallas, Texas, there is an area as remote as the land surrounding this Cemetery on Wolf Springs. From Highway 45 south exit at Malloy Bridge Road go east to Parkinson and south to Wolf Springs Road. There is no street address as this is surrounded by acres of land that is/was owned by TKCorporation. This is south of Ten Mile Creek and west of the Trinity River. This site is in an unincorporated area of Dallas County very close to the Ellis County Line.
There is nothing left to see of the cemetery as the head stones or markers have all been removed. When questioning people who have lived in the vicinity the same story is told, “They piled them in a pick up truck and dumped them in the Trinity River.” Various owners did not want a cemetery on the land. A large metal barn is standing near the cemetery site. There is a fence along Wolf Springs Road and near the gate was an overgrown parcel of land with a small shack that was once the home of Selena Oats. In 2008 the 100 year old dwelling was demolished – until that time it was one of the clues for the location of this cemetery. It has now been cleaned off, but many pictures exist of this small house.
Dallas County deed records describe the two acre plot of land Willis and Selena Oats purchased in 1902. The area where the cemetery was had been donated by the early land owner for the burial of the workers on his cotton plantation. The families kept up their own graves and in the summer when Selena’s grandchildren came to visit, she would keep them busy cleaning up the nearby site.
After Willis Oats died the two acres of land with the small house on it was deeded to his widow, Selena Oats. John Paul Jones, her son, died in 1950. Before Selena died in 1955, John Paul’s widow, Teresa Jones, Selena’s daughter-in-law (not the mother of the grandchildren) was able to get Selena to sign the papers to sell the property. The daughter-in-law kept the money for herself.
John Paul Jones’ son, Merlin Jones, has tried for the last twenty years to get the current surrounding land owner to acknowledge, recognize, and set aside, a small area for the cemetery.
Willis and Selena Oats are buried here. Their son John Paul Jones and his first wife are buried here. Gloria Washington has furnished copies of death certificates for members other family who are buried here. For Willie Smith (1894-1954) she has a letter from the federal government about his headstone as he was a veteran. On one of the death certificates the name is illegible (1926-1951) but it mentioned the Tennessee Colored Cemetery. On another for Ben Steward it is called the Tennessee Settlement Cemetery. For Adline Davis (1890-1955) it is called Ferris Colored Cemetery. These people are all buried in this site.
The research of this remote area of the county has gone in several directions. The deed records for the land owners since the 1950s when the head stones at the cemetery disappeared have been researched. The latest deed records show the current owner is a Fortune 500 Company. Their response to a letter from the Texas Historical Commission was, “There must be some mistake.” Texas Historical Commission failed to follow up on that accusation.
There is no way to even guess how many people were buried out in this remote area of Dallas County, starting just before the turn of the century. It was a cemetery for the people who worked on the cotton plantations or gravel pits in the vast number of acres in the flood plain of the Trinity River. The census records may not have even included them. No records were kept of the cemetery, unless the church that is mentioned in the deeds kept anything, which – probably did not happen. The church is long gone now. Burials were taking place up to the 1960s when Mr. Raymond Jeffers of Clark County, Nevada (a family member whose family lived in the area) acquired the land and stopped any further interments.
A map in the Public Works Section of Dallas County shows the cemetery. A bond issue in 1947 provided for the road to be widened for the mining operation that was taking place about one-half mile south. The cemetery site is noted on the map prepared for this project. Since Ferris was the closest community in Ellis County an attempt was made to research any records that may have been available one hundred years ago. At one time there was a funeral home, but has been closed for years and the owner lived in California and did not respond to any correspondence.
White families that were gathered at the Patrick Baptist Church on Malloy Bridge Road for a funeral and had lived and farmed in the area for years were questioned, but none even knew there had been a cemetery at that site. The black church mentioned in the deed records is gone and these people knew nothing about it either. This all happened too long ago.
The power company who provided power for the area was contacted, they, too did not reply to any correspondence.
The black people living in a nearby crossroads community introduced an elderly black man who said he knew there was a cemetery, but did not know who the people were.
He had lived in the vicinity for over fifty years. He said he was just a little boy when he was last out there and could not give too much reliable information.
The surrounding land is used for cattle grazing at this time. This Wolf Springs Cemetery problem can all be settled by the current landowners, setting aside a small portion (about 100 feet square) out of many acres of land so that nothing would ever be built there and fencing it off. The current landowners probably do not know anything about the people that lived out there either, as the records show they picked up the land from an insurance company in New York.
If the current landowner still thinks there is a mistake – they could pay for an archaeological survey to be done (by a licensed company) and prove there is no cemetery. If it was moved, how and by whom were the bodies relocated? They also could pay to have the bodies re-interred in a perpetual cemetery somewhere else and clean off the land.
Vernon’s Law of the State of Texas pertaining to Unknown or Abandoned Cemetery 711.010 and 711.011 would apply in this case. If any construction is ever contemplated the state law that requires a survey twenty feet or so be made for any burials out of these bounds if any are suspected. 711.041 should also apply referring to access.
Recently a reporter for a local paper acted interested in doing a story about the lost cemetery. She met, looked the site over, and nothing else has been heard from her. This may be one more of the cemeteries that have a sign that says, “Buried Here Are Those Known Only To God. “
See map below for location of the cemetery.
Frances James, “Dallas County History – From the Ground Up, Book II,” 2009.
