Dallas, TX
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Tag: history

Allanson Dawdy and Dowdy Ferry Road

Dowdy Ferry Road in Southern Dallas County was named in honor of Allanson Dawdy, despite the altered spelling. ALLANSON DAWDY, one of the first settlers of Dallas County, Texas, is a son of Allanson and Nancy Garrison Dawdy. His father was born in Tennessee, July 12, 1786. From there, in 1815, he removed to Illinois,…
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East Dallas

by Frances James [A vintage article written by our own Frances James, “the Cemetery Lady.”] The city of East Dallas existed for seven short years (1882-1889), just east of the city of Dallas. Though its life was brief, it was home to many distinguished builders of Dallas. East Dallas was bom when the Houston and…
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DCPA Quarterly Meeting, 6/3/21

Our next quarterly meeting will be held on June 3, 2021.  Please join us for dinner (reservations required) at 6:00 o’clock PM before the 7:00 o’clock meeting at Highland Oaks Church of Christ, 10805 Walnut Hill Ln, Dallas, Texas 75238. There is no charge to attend. Please feel free to invite others to come with you. Please…
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Dallas County Poor Farm

by Frances James This information is taken in part from DCPA member Frances James’ brief summary to the Texas Historical Commission sometime back in the 1980’s. “By 1876 the Dallas County Commissioners decided our county needed a poor farm. The site that was selected was 339 acres owned by W. J. Keller south of the…
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Old City Park

(One of our vintage articles on Old City Park) by Michael V. Hazel Old City Park: The Historical Village of Dallas occupies the site of Dallas’ oldest park, established in 1876 as City Park. That year, James J. Eakins gave the city ten acres of land south of downtown Dallas, which were set aside as…
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Bryan’s Smokehouse Barbecue

[From Proud Heritage, Volume III by DCPA. This 352 page hardcover book is now available online.] Dallas Morning News columnist Steve Blow wrote early in the twenty-first century that Bryan’s Smokehouse was the oldest restaurant still operating in Dallas. With a wink to Vincents (1898) this might be true. Elias and Sadie Bryan moved to…
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Shootout at a Church, 1897

Sensation and Lurid Scene at Pleasant Valley Church YesterdayJune 27, 1897 An unusually large congregation assembled at the Pleasant Valley church, five miles east of Garland, yesterday forenoon to hear the Rev. Dr. Patterson, of Ellis county, preach. The preliminary service of song and prayer was over, and the preacher was about to announce his…
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William Cooper McKamy and William Cooper McKamy, Jr.

William C. McKamy, Sr. came to Texas around 1851 from Tennessee. On October 21, 1845, he had previously married the former Rachel Loyd Wester and they brought with them their three children: William Albert, John Lewis and a daughter Keziah (a family name) McKamy. Once settled here, they had three more children: Mary E., William…
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Parkland Hospital

The oldest hospital in Dallas, Parkland Hospital Hospital was opened May 19, 1894, in a group of wooden buildings on a seventeen-acre wooded tract called Parkland, at Oak Lawn and Maple Avenues. An ambulance was purchased, but it was two years before a horse was acquired to pull it. A meningitis epidemic in 1911 underscored…
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