By Frances James (1922 – 2019)
On the West side of Dallas County very near the Tarrant County line is one of the historic black cemeteries in Dallas County. This cemetery is located off of Hard Rock Road and is south of Highway 183. The new 161 Toll Road is adjacent to the cemetery located twenty feet below! Shelton’s Bear Creek Cemetery is the place where these early black settlers on the west side of Dallas County buried their dead.
This was still Robertson County when the first settlers arrived in the area. By 1844 a series of treaties had been signed with the Indians, and one was at Bird’s Fort just a few miles farther west. These treaties helped open up this land for settlement. Several trails from Dallas going toward the west, Eagle Ford, Birdville, Bird’s Fort, and the California Crossing converged near this area now called Bear Creek.
When word was received that gold was discovered in California in 1849 the wagons “heading west” used these trails. There was a stage coach that used this route three times a week. Other than evidence of a trail to show the way, there were only isolated settlements in this new land that was now felt to be safe for development and was opening up. This was the fringe of Grapevine Prairie.
By the 1850s there were four or five pioneer families who had managed to get this far before stopping. Jacob Caster came alone before 1848 and later Lewis (1820-1903) and Henry (1858-1928) Caster arrived as early settlers. Kentucky native Lee Borah and family arrived in 1856 with their wagons and slaves and purchased 320 acres of land in Grapevine Prairie. Their original farmhouse is where the Administration Building for Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport is now. Ed Sowers came to Texas from Pulaski, Illinois in 1856 and purchased his first parcel of land. The William Haley family who came from Missouri in 1858 brought their slaves. The first black landowner in this rural settlement was Jim Green, who purchased his ten acres of land in 1878 from Thomas Lucas for “$50.00 paid in hand and a promissory note for fifty dollars to be paid with interest by October 1878.”
The nearest post office for this area started in 1856 with the name of Buck and Breck. By 1857, the name had been changed to Sowers and was located in the Sowers store the largest store to serve the community between the West Fork and the Elm Fork of the Trinity.
On early maps one of the creeks in this area that drained into the West Fork of the Trinity was named Bear Creek. The Bear Creek settlement between Grapevine and Grand Prairie became the place where these families that had been separated during the Civil War might possibly find friends and families.
Once called Spencer Park, the deed records for the surveys along the Dallas/Tarrant County line reflect that as soon as money could be found after the Civil War, these freed slaves purchased land. Of the parcels purchased most were in the J.C. Read Survey No. 1183, Elizabeth Gray Survey No. 1680 or the J. Farrens Survey No. 468.
Following are some of the early black landowners in the Bear Creek area:
Jim Green -January 1878 as noted above.
Jim Chivers and others -May 1894 (for the church) this was for 7.5 acres. Alex King -December 1878 and May 1895 these were both for 40 acres.
Collins and Rachel Patton -September 1898 this was for 10 acres.
D.W. Ellison/Ellerson -April1888 one of several for 40 acres.
Minnie Sheldon/Shelton- 1879 A portion of this land was donated for the Shelton’s Bear Creek Cemetery. On the official Certificate of Birth for Lillie Mae Shelton, her father, Minnie, was shown to have been born in Mississippi.
Ben and Rose Dilworth are shown as owners on the 1900 map. They had migrated to the area in the 1880s. They are buried in Shelton’s Bear Creek Cemetery. On the headstone of Rose Dilworth the engraving reads, “Born in Brandenburg, Miss. Dec.27, 1849.” Rose died in 1926.
Elizabeth Lawson also is shown as being a landowner on the 1900 map. She was a Daughter of Tabor, a secret insurance organization with an elaborate ritual for a burial service. Elizabeth was born in 1868 in Bright Star – a community now part of Sulphur Springs, Texas. Her headstone is quite distinctive with a 777 and 333 on it. Other land owners nearby are S. Frosy, and 0. Record.
Another large family in this vicinity was the Elmer Sweat Family. When this family came to Bear Creek they had already spent some time in Italy, Texas. They had heard about this close knit community and the opportunities for work in Dallas County. They attended the Allen Chapel AME church and one daughter still lives on property owned by this family for many years. She recalled the streets in Bear Creek were not even named, and the only way help could be sent in case of a fire was by smelling the smoke! The street she lives on, Compton Street was once called Sunnylane. Her first husband circulated a petition asking the city of Irving to name the streets.
The Trigg family lived on the “Trigg place” as tenant farmers. These sisters and brothers intermarried neighbors and many still live or come back to visit their “cousins”. There were also a number of large white landowners in the area named Trigg that either brought these people or the freed slaves adopted this name.
One of the first churches organized by these early families was the Shady Grove Christian Methodist Episcopal Church on Gilbert Road. This church started as a mission on the land purchased by Jim Green in 1884. These black families built a one room building used as a church and a school. There were as many as eighty children attending classes in this one school room. The only way the students could continue learning as they got older was to get up early in the morning and go to Booker T. Washington High School in Dallas, the first black high school, an hour away. The black children could not attend the Grand Prairie schools that were closer due to the rules of segregation at that time.
This original church building was replaced by a new structure (erected by S.L. Lowe) in 1897. In 1942 a larger church building was constructed and an annex building was brought to the site. In 1987 a brick structure was erected for a house of worship by the loyal members who had worshiped and studied together for over 120 years.
When the first school, called the Freedom School, was being built, a neighbor, a Mr. McGlothin, who owned land and trees across the road, seeing how determined they were, told the men, “Take as many logs as you need to build a school for these children.” Private schools were the only way the children had to learn. Although there has been a State Board of Education since 1866, originally the system depended on local control. In 1940, the building that had become known as Sowers Pioneer School burned and the students transferred to Dal Worth School in Grand Prairie. This private school later was named Colored School No. 2 when it became a county school. Irving Independent School District annexed the Sowers Common School District in 1955.
Mrs. Josie Davis was one of the teachers who taught the children that attended the Freedom School. There is now a school in Irving Independent School District named for her. Earlie Mae Wheeler was another early day teacher for the Bear Creek students. She came to Bear Creek after the Trinity Farms closed down in the 1940s. These farms were in the Trinity River flood plain near Shady Grove and Loop 12 now. If one of her pupils was ready to graduate and did not have a suitable dress, she would just make one for them herself. Earlie Mae had started teaching in 1931 while the school was in the County School System on the property of the Trinity Farms.
After the Civil War the people were free to work on the various farms, ranches, and dairies in the area. In an article in the paper in 1931, reference is made to the more and larger dairy herds in this section than any other section of Dallas County. Feed was grown locally and workers were needed to manage these operations. Dr. D.W. Gilbert had several dairies and farms and hired many people. The Borahs raised cotton and in an oral interview with a Borah descendant in a nursing home, she told of them going to the black community to find cotton pickers when the crop was ready. In particular she recalled going to the area to find Frances Moten, a black woman who could pick more cotton then any of the men.
In 1949 Jackie Mae Howard’s (1936-2002) family moved to the Bear Creek area. After attending the Sowers Colored School through the eighth grade she married Jimmie Townsell and they opened a small grocery store at the comer of Carver and Gilbert Road. A few years later they began serving lunches at the store. In 1976, six years after being annexed to Irving, Jackie decided to run for an open at-large seat on Irving’s City Council. She lost the first time she ran, but one year later she ran again and won! Bear Creek had its first representative on the Council and she ran every year and won for the next eighteen years! Jackie continued to be involved in the Bear Creek Community until she passed away in 2002.
Irving did not annex this area (north of the Rock Island Railroad) until 1968. The city of Grand Prairie annexed the area of Bear Creek south of the Rock Island Railroad about the same time. There was no water or sewer service until after that. The streets were not paved nor were there any zoning restrictions.
A question was raised when the DFW Airport was trying to expand about how to compensate the residents for harming their property. Irving, Grapevine, and Euless were involved in the court case. The citizens of Bear Creek were enraged when 1700 nearby white neighborhood residents were each to receive $25,000.00 compensation from the Airport Board and the residents of the 150 year old Bear Creek neighborhood were to receive nothing. The Board insisted it was scientific noise measurement and not bias that caused this to happen.
In 1930 when Dr. D.W. Gilbert died, a letter of condolence was sent to his wife and descendants from the black community as Dr. Gilbert had been the doctor for many of the members of the community all their lives. Later Dr. John Haley also served the people in the area where his own family had settled so long ago. A death certificate for A.J. Smith who died in 1919 was signed by Dr. Haley. A. J. Smith was buried in the Shelton’s Bear Creek Cemetery. His mother was Rachel Shivers.
In a study of this area completed before the DFW Airport expansion began a few years ago, the consensus was there were no significant buildings left in the community. The study did point out that the “Old Bear Creek African American Community Cemetery” was potentially eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.
Shelton’s Bear Creek Cemetery now contains only twelve headstones marking the last resting place of these pioneers. The oldest gravesite is one for Smith King who was only twenty-three years old when he died. There are fifty eight unmarked graves and probably many more unidentifiable ones by now. The families had been restricted for many years from gaining access to the site as it was surrounded by private property that had been used as a drug rehabilitation facility. The gates were locked! There is still a problem in reaching the cemetery.
Since 1957 planners have envisioned a third highway loop around the Dallas area. Sections of this Loop 161 have been completed and are now a toll road. The portion from Highway 183 south to 1-30 passes by the Bear Creek Community. This section of the new highway is ”just a stone’s throw” away and about twenty feet below. In 2004 the Texas Department of Transportation assured the community that the cemetery would be protected by erecting a beautiful, sturdy, new fence completely around the cemetery. There is a gate but it is only accessible through private property.
In cases like this Texas State Law, Vernon’s Statute 711.041 provides for ingress and egress to a cemetery. As this large tract of vacant land surrounding the cemetery on the new highway is developed, any and all new owners will be made aware of the Access Law so that the cemetery can be maintained and families and friends may visit.
The tight knit community is slowly disappearing as new houses are being built in the neighborhood. There is now a park and community center but descendants of many of the pioneers are still around and remember what living in Bear Creek was all about.
The site has a Texas Historical Marker and has been designated a Historic Texas Cemetery. This cemetery is eligible for the National Register.
Frances James, “Dallas County History – From the Ground Up, Book II,” 2009.
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