7 minute read
Here Lies Our NeigHbOrHOOd’s HistOry
About once a week, Randy Griffin drives his utility truck one street over from his Preston Hollow home to the historic, family cemetery in the 4000 block of Merrell Road.
He keeps the grass green and trimmed, protects against vandals, and watches over the graves and their curious mementos. He makes sure that the golf ball remains at the right side of John Crump Spicer, and that the dusty Dr Pepper bottle stays tucked behind Mark Allen Durham.
“My wife thinks it’s an odd deal that I’m out here doing this,” says Griffin, a professional landscaper who has worked on large commercial projects at the Galleria and Medical City. “I enjoy the place. I love taking care of it.”
What began as just another landscaping job grew into a lasting dedication. Griffin now serves as board president of the Merrell Cemetery Maintenance Association. He buried his mother there in 2011 among the pioneers of Dallas.
Before the city developed around it, Merrell was a one-lane country road leading from Midway straight to the cemetery, established in the late 1840s. It contains names recognizable to anyone who has driven the streets of
Merrell Road
A look inside the private cemetery on
Preston Hollow: Strait, Welch, Coppedge and Marsh, to name a few.
According to historian A.C. Green’s paper, “History of the Merrell Cemetery,” the burial ground sat on the Benjamin Merrell Survey, a piece of land obtained as a grant from the Texas Emigration and Land Co. also known as the Peters Colony. Eli Merrell, the cemetery’s namesake, was the first marked grave in 1849. The minister and his wife, Mary, settled on 640 acres near Bachman Creek. Nearby lies his nephew, Benjamin Merrell, Dallas County’s first tax collector, a title proudly engraved on the headstone. A few steps behind it, though, a small, crudely carved stone marker reads, “Ben Merrell,” likely a temporary headstone that never was removed, Griffin says.
Another pioneer family, the Straits, rests in the cemetery, including the son, Elmo Strait, who became the seventh Dallas Police Chief in 1921 before he died suddenly a year later at age 46 (read more about Elmo Strait and the Dallas Police Museum on page 10).
Stories abound at Merrell Cemetery, including that of husband and wife T.A. and S. Merrell, whose marble tombstone reads, “Murdered in El Paso Co. Tex.” Both died young on the same day, Christmas Eve, 1884. No one knew why until 15 years ago when Dallas Morning News columnist Steve Blow unraveled the mystery: the newlyweds had settled on a ranch outside of El Paso, but just two months later the wife was found decapitated and laying next to her husband who had an axe in his skull. Two hired ranch hands were suspected of the murders, but it’s unclear whether they were arrested.
Even after his 20 or so years of maintaining the grounds, Griffin still is learning the histories of each grave from Merrell Cemetery’s aging membership.
“I was the youngest when I started, and I’m still the youngest,” he says.
In addition to grounds keeping, Griffin also serves as sexton and funeral direc- tor, mapping out each plot and ensuring its inhabitant receives the best care possible. Ironing out the details can be a bit nervewracking for a landscaper who never intended to supervise the burial process, he says. When he began doing so in the early-2000s, he’d often wake up in the middle of the night before the service, re-thinking whether the person wanted to be buried on the right side or the left side of the deceased loved one. Now, he knows the system by heart.
“I’m reassuring them they’ll be where they want to be. I’ve buried a lot of people here. People I’ve known.”
All his work and friendships with the elderly relatives of the pioneer families means he inevitably will watch them pass away, and coordinate their burials, one of the most recent being Mary Cook, an esteemed board member who lived to be 103 years old. Her family’s farm sat at the southwest corner of Walnut Hill and Midway where St. Monica’s exists today.
“I really value hearing from older people,” Griffin says. “A lot of that is just talked about and never written down.”
Merrell Cemetery Maintenance Association board of trustees formed in 1965 to raise funds for improvements as needed and, to deter vandalism, the cemetery remains locked at all times, with Griffin as the gatekeeper.
Strange as it may seem for a landscaper to spend so much time working around the dead, Griffin takes pride in it.
“It’s a process of life. I’ll be doing it with myself when the time comes.”
And when that time comes, he’ll lie in Merrell Cemetery.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, visit merrellcemetery.com.
Anglican
ALL SAINTS DALLAS / 2733 Oak ww / 972.755.3505
Radical Inclusivity, Profound Transformation. Come and See!
9:00 & 11:00 am Sunday Services. www.allsaintschurchdallas.org
Baptist
PARK CITIES BAPTIST CHURCH / 3933 Northwest Pky / pcbc.org
All services & Bible Study 9:15 & 10:45. Trad. & Blended (Sanctuary),
Contemporary (Great Hall), Amigos de Dios (Gym) / 214.860.1500
PRESTONWOOD BAPTIST CHURCH / “A Church to Call Home”
Sundays: Bible Fellowship (all ages) 9:15 am /Service Time 11:00 am
12123 Hillcrest Road / 972.820.5000 / prestonwood.org
WILSHIRE BAPTIST / 4316 Abrams / 214.452.3100
Pastor George A. Mason Ph.D. / Worship 8:30 & 11:00 am Bible Study 9:40 am / www.wilshirebc.org
Bible Churches
NORTH HIGHLANDS BIBLE CHURCH / www.nhbc.net
Sunday: Lifequest (all ages) 9:00 am / Worship 10:30 am
Wed: Student Ministry 7:00 pm / 9626 Church Road / 214.348.9697
Disciples Of Christ
EAST DALLAS CHRISTIAN CHURCH / 629 N. Peak Street / 214.824.8185
Sunday School 9:30 am / THE TABLE Worship 9:30 am
Worship 8:30 & 10:50 am / Rev. Deborah Morgan-Stokes / edcc.org
MIDWAY HILLS CHRISTIAN CHURCH / 11001 Midway Road
Sundays: School for all ages 9:30 am / Worship service 10:50 am 214.352.4841 / www.midwayhills.org
Lutheran
FIRST UNITED LUTHERAN CHURCH / 6202 E Mockingbird Lane
Sunday Worship Service 10:30 am / Call for class schedule. 214.821.5929 / www.dallaslutheran.org
Methodist
LAKE HIGHLANDS UMC / 9015 Plano Rd. / 214.348.6600 / lhumc.com
Sunday Morning: 9:30 am Sunday School / 10:30 am Coffee
Worship: 8:30 am & 10:50 am Traditional / 10:50 am Contemporary
Unity
UNITY OF DALLAS / A Positive Path For Spiritual Living
6525 Forest Lane, Dallas, TX 75230 / 972.233.7106 / UnityDallas.org
Sunday Services: 9:00 am & 11:00 am
UNITY ON GREENVILLE / Your soul is welcome here! 3425 Greenville Ave. / 214.826.5683 / www.dallasunity.org
Sunday Service 11:00 am and Book Study 9:30 am
Let It Be Enough
Thanksgiving dominates November. And whatever our religion, we all celebrate the holiday. In fact, more than any other national holiday, Thanksgiving has profound spiritual roots.
But almost as popular in our culture today is the day after Thanksgiving: the so-called “Black Friday.” The largest, craziest shopping day of the year. You can’t miss the stories on television every year of the mad shoppers, frantically trying to save a few bucks.
To me, it’s an extraordinary that these two “holidays” come back-to-back. Speaking about “Black Friday” a few years ago now, my colleague the Rev. David Weber deliciously summed up the ironies:
“Americans stopped for awhile yesterday to give thanks for what they have, then rose this morning, early, and left the house, praying ‘But it’s not enough.’ ”
I mean, it is ironic, isn’t it? We spend an entire holiday giving thanks to God, our families and friends. We gather to eat a bounty of food. We rest in the knowledge that we are richly blessed. And then, the very next day, we rush out to buy, spend and acquire more.
A few years ago, a department store did a radial thing during the holiday shopping season. Instead of a traditional display window with fake snow, or tinsel, or reindeer, it put up a sign that said, “I have everything I need.”
What would it take for us to believe that we have all we need? What would it take for us to stop saying, “It’s not enough”?
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The answers to these questions point to why Thanksgiving is so profoundly a spiritual holiday — because the answers to these questions are always spiritual. To truly step back and give thanks for our many blessings takes spiritual insight and wisdom. It takes remembering that all of us are blessed be- yond measure, whether or not we always remember or understand that.
How do we start? First, by remembering the incredible blessings that come to each of us, simply by being alive and in this time and place. Let’s say it this way: If you are reading this magazine, you are statistically among the wealthiest people in the entire world. Yes, I know, we don’t feel that way all the time. But if you’ve done any traveling in the broader world, it becomes clear how richly blessed each of us in this nation truly are.
And yet, time and time again, so many of us fail to realize this. Instead, we focus on what we don’t have. We focus on what others do have. We look across the fence and decide the grass is greener over there. Eventually, gazing at that grass turns us green with envy. And pretty soon, instead of focusing on our many blessings, we’re focusing only on what we don’t have instead.
All of the world’s major religions include worship. And all worship includes thanking God for our blessings. Studies have shown that making the intentional choice to focus on our blessings can increase our physical well being.
In my tradition, the great mystic Meister Eckhart once said, “If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is ‘thank you,’ it will be enough.”
So, beyond turkey and football, let Thanksgiving be a time of spiritual renewal. Give thanks for the smiles of friends, the beauty of a sunset, the embrace of a child. Give thanks that there is life moving in and out of your body today.
We are, all of us, richly blessed. And once a year, if we pay attention, we’re given the chance to pause, take stock of those blessings, and develop a deep-level sense of gratitude once again.
Eric Folkerth is senior pastor of Northaven United Methodist Church (northaven.org). The Worship section is a regular feature underwritten by Advocate Publishing and the churches listed on these pages. For information about helping support the Worship section, call 214.560.4202.