The Making of a Historic Texas Cemetery

Suzanne Starling, the author of “Land is the Cry! Warren Angus Ferris, Pioneer Texas Surveyor and Founder of Dallas County”, recently passed away at the age of 89.  She was an author, educator, researcher, and historian. Her sharp mind and unwavering tenacity created a beautiful book which was the culmination of 14 years of research on the early west pioneer. She was instrumental in obtaining recognition of the old Ferris burial ground as a Historic Texas Cemetery. A great deal of her research material was obtained from the Ferris-Lovejoy family papers collection housed in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections department of The Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. The collection is comprised of 10 boxes which includes correspondence, legal documents, genealogy, memorabilia, poetry, literary manuscripts, photographs, etc. dating from 1771-1964. Upon its inception, the Special Collections Department set a goal to collect materials that document Mormon Americana and materials that document the history of the American west. Because Warren Angus Ferris was known as an early west trapper, cartographer, and diarist, his family documents and his map entitled “Map of the Northwest Fur Country” were purchased and are preserved by BYU. 

As a great-granddaughter (X3) of Warren Angus Ferris (WAF), I’ve had great curiosity about the Ferris-Lovejoy collection. I’ve visited the collection 4 times in the past 5 years. Most of the collection is correspondence between WAF and his mother and siblings. The Lovejoy portion of the collection pertains mostly to WAF’s half-brother, A. Clarence (Joshua).  It’s a marvelous collection of beautiful letters, poetry, and diaries written by the Ferris-Lovejoy family members.  This collection was compiled by Mr. Walter McCausland, a stamp collector and historian.   

Within the collection I found quite a bit of information about the Ferris family cemetery. Ferris homesteaded on 640 acres in the area of White Rock Lake, which is now includes the Forest Hills community. Upon the death of his young son in 1847, he donated a plot of land for a community cemetery and buried his child there.  Ferris, his second wife Frances, and 5 children are buried there.  The Ferris cemetery is now 176 years old. It is estimated that there are over 100 graves in the cemetery.  

A great deal of the cemetery history found in the collection was passed from generation to generation through oral tradition. Some of the information may be anecdotal and some may be factual.  The following information is taken from letters written to Walter McCausland by descendants of WAF and from contacts who had helpful information.  Factual or not, it’s interesting material. 

In 1959, J.E. Wade wrote “in 1838, Warren A. Ferris owned 7 to 9 Toby Scrips, each one calling for 640 acres of Texas land.  In 1850, when Warren had the contract to survey Dallas County, he moved onto the only section of land which was located in Dallas County. The Warren (Ferris) family cemetery has been desecrated, even the skulls taken out and displayed…and nobody doing anything about it. The Ferris heirs will have to show more interest in the cemetery if they expect help.” 

Walter McCausland obtained notes written by 75-year-old Robert Cole, a local resident who lived near the Ferris Cemetery.  Mr. Cole recalled "They (Ferris and wife) gave a small plot of land to the community to be used for a burial ground, here both lie buried- the mother died in 1872.  He died 1874, one small daughter and son by the first wife, Bud, also buried in the cemetery.  The summer of 1890 (I was ten years old at the time), Robert Ferris (son of Warren) and a childhood friend named Wess Chenault, worked to clear the brush and vines from their old family graves and built a fence around their burial lots, as the lots were together.  Eighty years ago, this old cemetery had many nice gravestones and markers, but to date, vandals have destroyed and hauled away all these stones.”  According to Mr. Cole, Robert’s son, Jack Ferris, said he remembered his father describing this event as well. At that time, the Chenault gravestone was still standing, and the Ferris graves were located.  

Mr. Cole also spoke of an old log house located one hundred yards from the old Ferris cemetery.  It is assumed that the house described is the old Ferris homestead. “There is where the James boys, Jesse, Frank, and their gang lived in the winter of 1872-73.  Here is where they buried their gold.  It was taken out the winter of 1889 or 1890.  In the old Ferris home is where Sam Bass and his gang lived while planning the holdup of the Texas and Pacific train at Mesquite, which was to be his last, as was shot and killed a while later at Round Rock.” There are no known photos of Ferris or the original homestead, but Mr. Cole stated that there was “a pencil drawing of the old Ferris home from memory- destroyed about 1903 – Forrest Hills - Bonnieview and St. Francis.” This record is held at the Hall of State Library in Dallas, Texas.

Mr. Cole was concerned that neglect, vandalism, and urban sprawl threatened the total loss of the cemetery as only ½ acre remained. He and some Ferris ancestors were unsuccessful in their attempt to have governing authorities preserve the cemetery and have a historic marker erected.  The Dallas Times Herald interviewed Mr. Cole and published an article in June 1956 describing the threats to the cemetery and the possibility that it would eventually be “swallowed up” by construction.

1956 Dallas Times Herald article about Warren Ferris Cemetery

Fortunately for the Forest Hills neighborhood and for the descendants of those buried in the cemetery, there’s been great progress made in preserving what remains of the Ferris cemetery.  In 1988, the Texas Historical Commission erected a historical marker (#6912) on St. Francis Avenue in honor of the cemetery. As mentioned before, this marker was championed by Suzanne Starling. In 2018, a neighbor of the cemetery, Julie Ann Fineman, founded the non-profit group “Friends of the Warren Ferris Cemetery” with the goal of restoring the cemetery landscape and honoring those buried there.  The organization recruits neighbors, volunteers, and descendants to support the restoration.  Their efforts are priceless to the community, the city, the environment, and to the Ferris descendants. 

The Ferris-Lovejoy documents are available for public viewing but must be done in person. The process of requesting an appointment is done on-line through the L. Tom Perry Special Collection Department website. Collection: Ferris and Lovejoy family papers | BYU Library - Special Collections.  The original diary of Ferris’ wanderings from 1830–1835 entitled “Life in the Rocky Mountains” was apparently destroyed in a fire, but the stories were preserved through print in the Western Literary Messenger of Buffalo N.Y. during his lifetime. The entire diary may be read on-line at this website: Introduction to Life in the Rocky Mountains, by W. A. Ferris (mtmen.org)

Descendants of those buried in the Warren Ferris Cemetery and anyone interested in sharing historical information about the cemetery are encouraged to write with stories, additions, and corrections.  Please contact me at greyhairfarm@yahoo.com

Written by Christine Cohen.

Great granddaughter (X3) of Warren Angus Ferris. Great granddaughter (X2) of Henry Ferris.

Who was Robert T. Taylor?

Taylor was probably born in Talbot County, Georgia in 1842 into slavery. It is in Talbot County that the Federal Census of 1870 found him. Robert is listed as an illiterate mulatto farm laborer (age 28), living with his wife Savannah A. Giddings (age 22) near O’Neal’s Mill. They married in 1866 and their four sons were born in Georgia between 1867 and 1872. Sometime after 1872, Robert Taylor moved his family to Texas. The 1880 Federal Census shows the Taylor family living in the White Rock Creek area of Dallas County. Four sons are listed: Polk, age 13; Robert, age 12: Gustus, age 10, and the  youngest, Walter, age 8. All of the boys worked on the farm, but the three oldest also attended school.

Robert T. Taylor was a successful black farmer in Dallas County who against the odds of tenancy was able to save money and buy his land.  Most tenants or sharecroppers were subsistence farmers whose continuous debt precluded them from becoming landowners. In 1894, Robert Taylor bought 24 acres of rich White Rock Creek bottom land from Isabella and Franklin Winfrey (Winfrey Point). Interestingly, this was part of C.A. Lovejoy Survey #8, four miles east of the town of Dallas, originally surveyed by W.A. Ferris. R.F. Taylor paid $200 in cash and signed three promissory notes which were paid off by 1900. One of the 24 acres Taylor deeded to the trustees of Griggs Chapel, a Negro church which sat on the corner of his farm. Sam Street’s 1900 map of Dallas County shows R.T. Taylor’s house and two rental houses on Garland Road about where the Camp House is now located at the Dallas Botanical Gardens and Arboretum.

Perhaps because they had experienced the handicap of illiteracy, Robert and Savannah Taylor were keen on educating their four sons. It is not known what schools they attended in Georgia and Texas, but they must have had excellent teachers who prepared them for professional careers.

Polk K. Taylor (1867- ?), the oldest son, is mentioned in an 1891 Dallas Morning News article as a debater in the Dallas Colored Literary Society. It is not surprising that Polk became a lawyer, practicing law in the Creek Nation of Indian Territory where he married Freddie M. Sims in 1907. Polk moved about restlessly. He was a postal clerk in Muskogee and later a teacher in Oklahoma City. His mother Savannah, in 1909, reported Polk to be divorced and living in Chickasha. In the 1920’s, he was in Tulsa, perhaps witnessing the horror of the white mobs' attack on black businesses and persons in the spring of 1921. The year of Polk K. Taylor’s death and his place of burial are not known.

Second son Robert F. Taylor (1867-1901) finished school, met and married Olivia C. Anderson of Washington County, TX, and became a Baptist minister in Corsicana, TX around 1892. More will follow about Robert F.

An 1896 newspaper item reported: “Augustus Taylor of Dallas has returned from a medical college at Nashville, TN where he has been for 2 years.” A graduate of Meharry College, the only medical school for blacks, Augustus L. “Gustus” Taylor (1869-1941) became a prominent physician/surgeon in Fort Worth, opening his practice in 1907. He married three times - the last and longest marriage was to Allie Bell Cox (1894-1967), a divorcee with a daughter, Catherine M. Moore, who was adopted by Dr. Taylor. They lived in their home at 1132 Humboldt for 40 years. Dr. Taylor died in 1941; both he and his wife are buried in the New Trinity Cemetery in Haltom City, TX.

Walter R. Taylor (1872-1916), the youngest son, became a teacher at Dallas Colored High School on Cochran at Hall Street in Freedman’s Town (now the Uptown area). In 1898, he married Caledonia Dodson who taught at the same school. A Dallas City Directory shows their residence at 469 Juliet St. In 1899, his father sold Walter an acre of the White Rock land for ”$1 and other considerations”, but Walter did not move to the land. In 1909, Walter’s mother reported that Walter lived in El Paso, TX where he was principal of the colored high school. The census of 1910 shows Walter and Caledonia in Washington, D.C. where he was employed as a tabulator for the immigration service. Before Walter moved to California around 1911, he must have gone to law school. He was an attorney in Los Angeles until his death in 1916 (age 43). Walter is buried in the Angelus Rosedale Cemetery, Los Angeles, CA.

 None of the boys came back to Dallas until Robert F. was brought home to be buried in the Ferris Cemetery in 1901. His father, Robert T. Taylor, died five years later in 1906. The elder Taylor’s obituary which appeared in the Fort Worth paper says he was buried at “White Rock”. Probably Savannah buried her husband near her son in the Ferris Cemetery.

 An interesting affidavit was given in person by Savannah Taylor in 1907 at the time she was selling most of the Taylor farm to the City of Dallas for the building of White Rock Lake. She states that Robert T. Taylor left no will but all of his debts were paid in full. Savannah reports the marital status of each of her three living heirs and where they were living. She had no grandchildren.  In 1909, Savannah sold 20+ acres of the White Rock land to the city for $60 dollars an acre. She retained a few acres where her home was located and lived there until her death at age 72 in 1920. Savannah Taylor is buried in McCree Cemetery in Northeast Dallas.

 The story of Savannah and Robert T. Taylor is one of amazing success against the backdrop of Reconstruction and Jim Crow. Coming out of slave days in Georgia to own their own farm and home in Dallas, the black couple educated four boys who became professional men - a lawyer, a preacher, a physician, and a teacher.

Who was Robert F. Taylor?

Robert F. Taylor, the second son of R.T. and Savannah Taylor, was born in Georgia and, after the Civil War, moved with his parents and brothers to a farm on White Rock Creek. Little is known of where Robert received his education. He and his brother Walter were active in the BYPU, a Baptist youth organization, where Robert, dubbed “The Fighting Tiger”, honed  his speaking and argumentation skills. Robert F. married Olivia Anderson of Washington County, TX in 1891; he was 21 and she was 18. By 1892, he was a young preacher with his own church, the Second Independent Baptist Church of Corsicana TX. Taylor was the third pastor of this historic church, said to be the second oldest Negro Baptist church in Texas.

Taylor’s church was reorganized  as the First Independent Church of Corsicana - New Building - 1929

In 1892, young R.F. Taylor wrote an impressive letter to the Plaindealer, a Negro newspaper in Detroit. He sent news from the Lone Star State where, he reported, the dominant Democratic Party was divided and the Populist Party rising in popularity. Sadly, the Afro-American vote was also divided. Reminding the reader that 130,000 slaves were freed in the South in ignorance and superstition, Rev. Taylor wrote “we need more educated people”. He noted progress being made; “The leading churches in the South today are being filled with men who keep pace with the times”; but change takes time, he wrote. His thoughtful letter reveals Taylor’s interest in politics as well as religion. Rev. Taylor was active in the Navarro County Republican Party.

Corsicana in the 1890’s experienced rapid economic and social change; a small agricultural community became a boom town after oil was discovered in 1894. Saloons and brothels sprang up. The town was teeming with unruly men. Racial tensions were high. Several incidents of vigilantism and racial violence occurred in Corsicana between 1892 and 1901. Amid this climate of instability, Pastor Robert F. Taylor went about his business with the church; he attended numerous BPYU and Sunday School conventions in Central Texas where he often preached the sermon.

All was going along smoothly until December of 1897 when Taylor went to Corsicana authorities to ask for a restraining order against church member Nathan Mosely who was threatening his life. Why was Mosely threatening Taylor? The implication was that the preacher was having an affair with Mosely’s wife. The church tried to contain the scandal, saying “It is church business” and the church elders would discipline Taylor.

On May 23,1898, white druggist John Shook shot black citizen Nathan Mosely in broad daylight before many witnesses on a downtown street of Corsicana. A Galveston newspaper gave a vivid account of the incident. Shook said the black man sent his wife an insulting letter. He was not charged with the murder.

The June 14, 1898 Dallas Morning News story, reported that Rev. R.F. Taylor and Janie Mosely were arrested and indicted for conspiracy against Janie’s husband Nathan Mosely. Headlined “Echoes of the Mosely Killing”, a July 4th article revealed that a handwriting comparison showed Mosely did not write the letter which led to his murder. A similar letter had been sent to another unidentified woman. At this point the authorities turned their attention to Rev. Taylor, recalling that Taylor had asked for a restraining order on Nathan Mosely. The sheriff suspected Taylor and Janie Mosely had written the letters hoping that one of the two husbands would kill Nathan and end his threats. Druggist Shook obliged.

R.F. Taylor was also charged with misuse of the mails and taken by the Deputy Marshal to federal court in Dallas. After spending a few days in jail, Rev. Taylor was released. His church called for his resignation. We do not think Taylor was convicted of a crime or lost his church. A newspaper article in Oct. 1900 shows him as moderator for a church meeting in Corsicana where 200 people were in attendance;  apparently, R.F. Taylor continued his church duties until his death in 1901 at age 33. The cause of his death is not known. Olivia, his wife, took his body for burial in the Ferris Cemetery in Dallas near where he had grown up. She placed the epitaph,”Gone from our home but not from our hearts” on his impressive gravestone. It seems the young preacher was forgiven his indiscretions. 

By Susanne Starling, June 2022, based on research by Donald Payton, Debra Walker, and Marilyn Kosanke

A Freedman’s Community Near White Rock Creek?

 According to a hand drawn map by W.R. Conger, a portion of the Ferris Cemetery, toward San Leandro and Ash Creek, was the site of several black burials. Some of these black people worked for neighboring farmers like the Tuckers and the Caruths;  others lived in the Reinhardt  community and worked for the Santa Fe railroad. There was a colored school in Reinhardt and Griggs Chapel, a Negro church, sat on Garland Rd. adjacent to R.T. Taylor’s land. 

Was Charles Drake Ferris at the Battle of San Jacinto?

Recently we have met (digitally) Anna Christine “Chris” Cohen, a Ferris descendant through the line of Henry Ferris, son of W.A. Ferris. She is the great, great, great granddaughter of Warren Angus Ferris. Christine lives on a horse ranch near College Station. She is retired from a career in the health field; her husband Noah is a professor of veterinary science at Texas A&M. They have two young adult children, Ethan and Fiona. Chris is very well-informed on Ferris family history. She has made three trips to study the Ferris/Lovejoy Papers at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. 

Christine Cohen

Christine determined to prove to the Sons of the Republic of Texas that Warren Ferris’s younger brother, Charles Drake Ferris, fought at the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836. Charles Ferris’s name does not appear on the official veterans list of that decisive battle and he did not receive donation land due to those veterans. Christine knew the SRT had rejected Charles, but she decided to write to them in hopes that they would be persuaded to add his name to the list.

Circumstantial evidence presented by Christine included family letters, published contemporary accounts, evidence from the historical record, and Charles Ferris’s own writings which carried the convincing flavor of an eye-witness to events at San Jacinto.

Charles D. Ferris and a Buffalo, NY friend Horace Chamberlain arrived in Texas as volunteers in early 1836. After the fall of the Alamo, the historic record shows that Ferris served as a “spy” for Mosley Baker, reporting on Mexican troop movements and later aide-de-camp to Lt. Governor James Robinson. Ferris delivered an urgent dispatch from James Fannin at Goliad to Robinson during the days that the Texian army fell back before the Mexican invasion. Charles Ferris was among those critical of Sam Houston’s inglorious retreat, dubbed the “Runaway Scrape”.

The Ferris family in Buffalo was convinced that Charles participated in the Battle of San Jacinto. His sister Sarah Lovejoy wrote in June 1836, “The last letter we had from Charles was dated the 22nd of April, the day after the battle of San Jacinto and Santa Ana’s capture. He was then well-delighted with the country and in good spirits - he thought the next movement would be to San Antonio to endeavor to retake it”. She also noted that Horace Chamberlain was with Charles at San Jacinto on April 23, a few days after the battle.

Horace Chamberlain’s June 15,1836 letter to his father was published in the Daily Advertiser in Buffalo, NY: “Charles D Ferris, formerly of Buffalo, is here, and belongs to the army - he is aide to Gov. Robinson. He was in the engagement, and narrowly escaped death…Three days after the battle, I visited the field, which was literally covered for ten miles with the dead…” In his letter, Chamberlain describes Charles’s hand-to-hand combat with a Mexican soldier. Having been thrown from his horse, dodging bullets and bayonet, Ferris killed the foe with his rifle butt.

Following the battle, in May 1836, Charles Ferris was commending by Lt. Gov. Robinson in a letter of introduction to Gen. Thomas J. Rusk as a “young man of classical education and morals, habits, and tried valor.”. This a month after San Jacinto.

On his return to Buffalo in the fall of 1836, Charles published in the Western Literary Messenger a tribute to Juan Almonte’s conduct at the Battle of San Jacinto. Almonte, Santa Anna’s aide-de-camp, acted with cool courage according to Ferris. As the battle turned into a massacre and Santa Anna fled the field,  Almonte raised a white flag of surrender, calming the angry Texans, and saving many lives. Charles Ferris’s moving descriptions of the horrors of the furious battle and the admirable behavior of Almonte have the earmark of an eye-witness account.

Charles D. Ferris’s name did not appear on Sam Houston’s list of men at San Jacinto or subsequent lists in 1875 and 1883. Although he did not receive donation land due to veterans of San Jacinto, the family of Charles Ferris was awarded a 960 acre land grant for his service in the Texas Army. Louis W. Kemp investigated omission of names of deserving men in 1906; some names were added but not that of Ferris. Kemp admitted that the list was probably incomplete. Omissions were possibly due to loss of documents. Some of the archives of Texas were lost during moves from Columbia to Washington-on-the-Brazos, from  Harrisburg to Austin. In 1845, the Treasury Office burned and muster rolls were lost.

The Sons of the Republic of Texas did not respond to Christine Cohen’s argument. Still she believes that that the evidence proves that Charles Ferris did participate in the battle that decided Texas independence. What do you think?

Fannin or The Massacre of La Bahia

A Poem by Charles Drake Ferris

What means that dark cloud, overhanging the vale;

And those soft mournful sounds that I hear in the gale!

Tell me why the rejoicings of liberty cease,

And those sobs of regret break the stillness of peace?

Oh say! What can thus like a funeral pall

Wreathe sorrow and stillness alike over all!

’Tis Nature and Texas commingling their grief

For the loss of a gallant and favorite Chief.

Jehovah himself, from his throne in the sky,

And the hosts of bright seraphs and angels on high,

From those scenes of delight in the regions above,

Sympathise in our grief for the hero we love.

They heard the wild shouts that arose from the plain

Where the heroes of Georgia with Fannin were slain;

And their blood gushing torrents of death and despair,

Rose aloft to the Lord on the pinions of air. 

Hushed at once were the sounds of devotion and praise,

For the highest archangel was struck with amaze;

As those currents of crimson arose from below,

Supplicating to God for revenge on the foe.

Soft and sweet was the halo of grief that o’ersspread

The fair shadowy forms of the time-honored dead,

And melting indeed was the holy appeal

As they held up their hands, and their wounds did reveal.

From hell’s dark abyss, the black caverns of night

At that moment arose the shrill sound of delight,

Triumphant, terrifick, that terrible yell

From the turrets of Heaven, was reechoed in Hell.

Sublime was the wrath that o’reshadowed His brow

As the echoing thunder repeated his vow.

That the fruits of a vengeance as deadly and deep

As our foes had deserved, they bitterly reap.

Brave Texians! To you the direction was given

To redress your own wrongs, and redress those of Heaven;

To the Plains of Jacinto ye gallantly moved,

Where the vengeance of God was performed and approved.

Like his brother Warren Ferris, Charles D. Ferris tried his hand at writing poetry. This moving poem was never published. It was rejected by the publisher as too emotional. They also objected to the idea that God approved the Texians’ actions of revenge for the Alamo and Goliad taken at San Jacinto.

Written by Susanne Starling from material provided by Christine Cohen.