Oak Cliff Cemetery

When Kristi coleman first visited Oak cliff cemetery with her husband 20 years ago, they happened upon human bones the earth had purged.

“I said, ‘We gotta get out of here,’” she recalls.

the African American portion of the cemetery, which dates from around 1840, is at the rear, in a low place where water from the rest of the cemetery drains. And occasionally, bones come up from the ground. She saw bones again several years ago, when she brought her two children.

the Oak cliff native started researching the cemetery, which probably is the oldest public burial ground in Dallas, about five years ago. buried there are three Dallas mayors, the founder of Skillern’s Drug Store, Gen. Sam Houston’s son, artist edward G. eisenlohr, and Leslie Stemmons, the businessman who donated land for Stemmons Freeway.

And there is more to this old cemetery than a lot of prominent names.

coleman has found more than a few fascinating stories.

At least a couple of murder victims are buried there, she says. One is a man whose wife stabbed him while she was preparing a picnic for them.

“Of course, there are lots of terribly tragic stories about kids eating poison or falling off the viaduct,” she there is an archeologist who dug up thousands of relics from Indian mounds and a young man who died when a dance hall collapsed on the dancers.

Abavarian immigrant buried there was the first zither player in the United States and played French horn in first Dallas Symphony Orchestra. He married a French girl born in the La reunion utopian community.

An executioner from Oklahoma Indian territory executed more than 300 Native Americans before meeting his maker in Dallas, and he is buried in Oak cliff cemetery.

When commissioner of streets Gus Wiley died in 1931, it was reported that all 150 “negro garbage collectors” looked on him as a father and went to him for advice. they parked their garbage wagons along the cemetery road at the funeral, alongside “shining limousines.”

A man once visited the caretaker of Oak cliff cemetery and offered him $2,000 to dig up a grave. His offer went as high as $15,000, but the caretaker refused. the man claimed $30,000 was in the casket.

A nice-looking girl came into town with two sky writers. She was sick, and they left her. She died with no identification, and newspapers all over the nation printed her description. they received thousands of letters, but never found her identity. Finally, she had to be buried. cliff temple baptist church was packed for her funeral.

Wild bill evans was a fiery evangelist with 25,000 converts. He once was trying to get to a man at the back of the church, but the aisles were too crowded so he ran on top of the pews to the back.

Sarah Frances Abbott was a rebel to the end. Someone gave her a blue dress, which she refused because it was Yankee color. She hated anything Yankee. there are many more, including a Seminole Indian chief and a Gettysburg soldier.