From Proud Heritage, Vol. 1 by DCPA, not currently in print.
People came in wagons, some walked, some had to pull the wagons because they had no mules. They came in dribbles and droves to claim this land. Most were slaves and ex-slaves who came to Dallas County from the “Black Belt” of Texas (Southeast and Northeast Texas). They settled in what was then known as “The Line”, now known as Hardy Road and Mountain Creek Lake.
Among the early families who settled at “The Line” was one Elijah (Papa Jock) Fisher. The exact year is not known, but it was very soon after the end of the Civil War, probably around 1867. Elijah was looking for work and thought the Dallas area would be better than the cotton fields of east Texas. He found work on the MKT railroad as a “Gandy Dancer” (one who drives the spikes and lays the ties for the railroad).
Elijah worked on the railroad many years. As the lines moved into east Texas he moved along with them. When the wife he had married in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas died he was still working on the rail lines. Her family took the two children to raise.
Later Elijah met Ladonna Jernigan when he was working in the Carthage, Texas area. Ladonna’s mother didn’t want her to marry him because he was a widower. Legend says she ran off to marry him. They Lived in Panola County several years, then moved back to Dallas to raise their ten children. They settled first in the Dal-Worth community.
Some of the members of this family were Dennis Fisher who Lived to be 94, Johnny Fisher who later bought land in the Shady Grove area, and Harry Pool Fisher who married Lois Rogers, daughter of Charley Rogers. They bought land in the area of what is now Wildlife Park. William Fisher, Isaac Fisher, Jessie Fisher settled in the Shady Grove Frogtown areas, as did Charles Fisher. Frances Fisher, daughter of Jessie Fisher, married Elmer Sweatt whose family had lived in the Frogtown/Shady Grove area since the late 1860’s. Annie Fisher born in 1905 married Booker T. Reed. Later she married again to Johnny Finley. They lived on Gilbert Road in Shady Grove. Classie Fisher, the youngest child of Ladonna and Elijah, married Walter Holmes.
Other families who settled in the western area of Dallas County were: Jordan, Tallie, Hill, Dawson, Watson and Shelton, Jones Moten, Triggs, Chivers and Rogers. This community, “The Line”, was actually formed around 1870, Frogtown and Shady Grove in the 1860’s.
Ernest Davis, known as “Frog” Davis lived East of Gilbert Street and South of Rock Island. Everyone loved “Uncle Frog” and the community was aptly named Frogtown after him. The area known as Frogtown was/is South of Shady Grove Road.
Mrs. Josie Davis was one of the first teachers in the Freedom School. This school was started through a hand gift from Jim Green and monies from others who came with him because the people wanted their children to read. In the 1890’s when the “separate, but equal” Supreme Court decision was made the state helped fund the school. Later the school was taken into the Irving Independent School District and the name was changed to the J.O. Davis School in honor of “Miss Josie”.
The area between Shady Grove Road and the Rock Island railroad is known as Bear Creek; north of the railroad the area is known as Shady Grove.
The Jim Green Mission, founded by Jim Green was organized in 1882. The little mission grew and is now the Shady Grove CME. The 1892 cornerstone names S. L. Lowe, A. Coble, and Mrs. C. Ellison. It was rededicated in 1942.
Charley Rogers was an early Dallas pioneer. He owned land just east of John Neely Bryan’s settlement which is now in the San Jacinto Street area. When he sold his land in Dallas, sometime around 1880, he went to Frogtown and purchased land off Belt Line Road from Hardrock to Hunter-Ferrell to creek bottom. He bought enough land so that all his children would have homes of their own. He wanted a church so he deeded land for Mount Elam.
Charley’s son, Joe Rogers, drove the first transportation on San Jacinto Street in Dallas.
Children of these families are living in these communities today, all a part of the city of Irving now. The descendants of the ex-slaves who were thought of as property can realize how far they’ve come in a hundred years and how far they need to go within the system. “Think of the strength of our ancestors, the Shady Grove CME church and the Freedom School! Frogtown – Shady Grove – Bear Creek, that place where ex-slaves came to build a new Life.”
By Helen Reed Hardin, Grand Prairie.
