Many of you will recall the story I told in the preface of Land Is the Cry! about the young man in my history class at Eastfield College (Dallas College) who asserted that his ancestor surveyed Dallas County. Greg Smith, grandson of Lucy Pounds Smith, followed up by bringing a folder of letters and clippings collected by his grandmother. A love letter written by Warren A. Ferris to his first wife Melinda from a cold surveyors’ camp in the bottoms of the East Fork of the Trinity River in 1841 especially caught my eye.

Next, I visited with Greg’s parents. His father, Leland Smith, loaned me a copy of Ferris’s Life In the Rocky Mountains which described his adventures as a fur trapper for the American Fur Company. The preface of that book revealed to me that there were many more letters exchanged between Warren Ferris and his family in Buffalo, NY. Descendants of Ferris had saved the letters. Recognizing their significance, the family put them in the hands of historians and institutions were they would be preserved.

Unpublished original letters are a goldmine to the historian. In 1985, I retired from teaching and began the search for the Ferris letters. The trail that led me to Austin, TX, Buffalo, NY, and Provo, UT was an interesting journey. Through their unpublished manuscripts I met stamp collector Walter McCasland and Southwestern historian Homer DeGolyer. Both had been fascinated by the Ferris story, collected materials, and begun writing in the 1940’s. McCasland’s unpublished manuscript gave important information on Ferris’s family and his early years on the Niagara frontier. DeGolyer provided valuable insights on the Republic of Texas, the little village of Dallas at the Three Forks of the Trinity, and Indian conflicts with militia rangers. Publication of Land Is the Cry! in 1998 changed my life. The professional surveyors of Texas, who helped me understand pioneer surveying techniques, welcomed me to their state conventions where I was twice the keynote speaker. Frances James, the “Cemetery Lady” of Dallas County became my mentor. I worked with Frances to get a Texas Historic Marker for the Ferris Cemetery and also a medallion declaring the cemetery a Texas Historic Cemetery. Most recently, I have been involved with the Friends of the Warren Ferris Cemetery. My role has been locating descendants of those buried in the cemetery and writing brief profiles on their families Greg Smith went into education and became the principal of Caldwell Elementary School in Garland. These two photos were published in the Garland newspaper on the occasion of my visiting Greg’s school and speaking to a class on the subject of Texas surveying. I led the youngsters through roleplaying a frontier surveying party. They portrayed the surveyor, the line man, chain bearers, cook, and guards. Greg went on to become principal of an elementary school in University Park. We stayed in touch sporadically.

Greg Smith and his wife live in Greenville, SC now. He is out of the education business. They own an athletics supply store. His father Leland lives in a retirement residence in Greenville, TX.

Written by Susanne Starling, 2021.