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Dallas Had a Bomb Factory

Magnesium Fire Levels Bomb Plant In 1943 the headlines of the Dallas Morning News said “Magnesium Fire Levels Bomb Plant.” The article continued describing the most spectacular fire in Dallas History on December 15-16, 1943, when the government’s entire stock of magnesium was lost. Austin Bridge Company, also known as ABCo at that time manufactured incendiary bombs…
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Dr. Henry North Graves

Dr. Graves (1846-1921) moved to Dallas in his later years. He was a well known physician but perhaps less well known for his role in the story of the legendary Texas artillery pieces known as the “Twin Sisters” which played a role in the Texas Revolution. The “Twin Sisters” refers to two field pieces (artillery…
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Sainthood for a Native Born American

An article in the Dallas Morning News dated January 28, 2000, had a headline of “Pope clears sainthood path for native born American.”  There is more to this than was stated in the article from the Washington Post.  In 1992 while researching the files about Freedmans Cemetery on Central Expressway, the following information was found in the…
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Hunnicutt School, Oldest School in DISD

by Kathy Ann Reid, 1/23/2020 William Cunningham (W. C.) Hunnicutt (1818-1868) and wife, Nancy Beeman Hunnicutt (1821-1914), started Hunnicutt’s School in 1856. The exact location is unknown, but it is assumed to have been on Hunnicutt land. The current location at 2444 Telegraph Ave., Dallas, Texas, is near Hunnicut Road and not far from W.…
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Ross Avenue

The city had expanded the limits in 1890 and Ross Avenue, first named Carondelet, was one of the more choice places to live in Dallas. It was one of the first streets in Dallas that was paved, which was a new process. Macadam paving was first used in 1885 and Ross Avenue between Ervay and…
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1856 Tornado

From: History of Dallas County Texas, 1837 to 1887 by John Henry Brown.  The locally famous cyclone struck Cedar Hill, eighteen miles southwesterly from Dallas, April 29, 1856. Mr. Dickson, a merchant, James Berry and family, Mr. Hart and family, and perhaps others were killed. Mrs. Merrifield and children escaped almost miraculously, the house being lifted…
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Dr. W. W. Samuell

William Worthington Samuell was born 13 January 1878, in Georgetown, Kentucky, the son of Capt. Hazael O. and Sallie (Worthington) Samuell. His parents moved to Dallas County, settling in the vicinity of New Hope when he was a year old. After education in the Dallas schools, he attended the University of Texas and took his medical…
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John Neely Bryan

John Neely Bryan was born December 24, 1810 in Fayetteville, Lincoln County, Tennessee to James and Elizabeth Neely Bryan. Bryan lived for a number of years in Tennessee where with his local liberal education, he was able to teach school. When he was a young adult, he studied law and was admitted to the Tennessee bar.…
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Sarah Horton Cockrell

Sarah Horton Cockrell was born in Virginia on 13 January 1819 to Enoch and Martha Stinson Horton. She moved with her family to Dallas County, Texas near Eagle Ford in 1844, becoming one of the pioneer families in the area. In September of 1847, she married Alexander Cockrell. Alexander was a native of Kentucky and came…
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The Ayers Family in Dallas

From Proud Heritage, Volume III by DCPA. This 352 page hardcover book is available online. In the middle of the nineteenth century, Simpson G. Ayers was a cotton farmer in Tippah County, Mississippi.  Little is known about Simpson Ayers, other than he was the father of twenty or more children by two wives. Among Simpson’s children was William R.,…
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