Detail of Dallas County Map 1891 Dallas Reinhardt and Garland

Finding descendants of the pioneer Sage family is challenging. Five generations of the Sages have produced only one son per generation. Daniel Harrison Sage (1802-1866), patriarch of the family who is buried in the Ferris Cemetery, brought a family of seven children (including three sons) when he came from Kentucky to Texas in the late 1840’s; but his son James Alexander Sage (1850-1904) had only one son, Joseph Enoch Sage (1880-1961). Joe had a single son - James Donald Sage (1923-1998) and Donald had only one male heir, our informant James Donald Sage, Jr. (1952 - ). Now James has a son Joel Travis Sage (1981- ) and a grandson, Thomas Elliott (2012 - ). So through James Alexander Sage’s descendants, the Sage name has survived.

Many early Sage daughters carried the family heritage into marriages to local boys. The Sages are related by marriage to other Dallas pioneer families - kinfolk include the Dye, Chenault, Beeman, Tabor, Pemberton, and Herndon families. This Sage connection may explain why members of these related families are buried in the Ferris Cemetery.

Daniel Sage and his wife Lucy Dye (1816-1898) migrated to Texas from Oldham County, Kentucky near Louisville and settled on a 160 acre land-grant east of White Rock Creek. They first appear in the Dallas County census of 1850 which shows Daniel (a farmer, age 47) Lucy (age 34) and seven children. They had four more children, all girls, after coming to Texas. The Sage family farm passed to their youngest son, James Alexander, and then to their grandson, Joseph or “Joe” Sage.

Joe Sage and 5 sisters in birth order: Nancy Jane Lilliard, Lillie Frances Hilton, Effie Florence Ueckert, Roberta Alice Ogle, and Oma Lee Minor.

Portrait of Joseph E. Sage and Ellen Rains Sage

Joe Sage and his wife Ellen Rains raised cotton on the Sage farm just northeast of a small community called “Reinhardt”. Reinhardt, Texas was a creation of the Gulf Central and Santa Fe Railroad in 1886. Eight miles northeast of Dallas and about three miles from the Ferris Cemetery, the Reinhardt depot was the only stop between Dallas and Garland. The little town boasted a hotel, a cotton gin, a bank, three churches, a school, and general store. In 1910, Reinhardt had a population of 100 people. There was a black population as well. The black school had 35 pupils. A black cemetery, the Colby Cemetery, was near the railroad tracks.

A neighbor, John Chenault, built the first school on his farm in the late 1800s. By 1900, a new school was built near the railroad. Here two teachers taught all grades. This was replaced with a two-story brick school in 1921. It was part of the Dallas County school system. The present Reinhardt Elementary School was built in 1941. It became part of DISD when Reinhardt was annexed by the City of Dallas in 1945. While James Donald Sage attended the historic 1921 school, his son James D., Jr. attended the current 1945 campus, the “mother school” of a new Casa View neighborhood.

Reinhardt Elementary School - (blt. 1941)

In 1933, Joe Sage lost his farm which had been in the family for generations. Joe, like many farmers, had accumulated debt during the Depression of the 1930’s. Although he had to sell the last 86 acres of the Sage farm to pay off his debts, Joe made enough on the sale to pay off his debts, buy a car, a new suit ofclothes, and two lots in Reinhardt. For a time he was able to stay on his land as a tenant, but in 1950 he was forced to move into Reinhardt, which was now Dallas.

Clipping of Joe Sage and his Family Farm

Ironically, Joe Sage’s debt was owed to his brother-in-law W.R. Euckert, owner of the Reinhardt general store. Joe was not the only local farmer to lose land to debt. The Euckerts acquired quite a bit of property which, beginning in 1948, they sold to developers of Casa View and Casa Linda. What had been open farmland northeast of White Rock Lake became bedroom communities for Dallas with street names like Peavy, Zacha, Losa, Cayuga, Stevens, DeVilla, and Hermosa - and only a few commercial buildings as reminders of Old Reinhardt.

Later generations of Sages adapted to life in Reinhardt that was now the City of Dallas. Some families displaced by development moved north and east to Garland or Rowlett. Joe’s son James Donald Sage stayed in Reinhardt where at age 16 he was badly injured in a car accident. He became legally blind and his plans for attending college were dashed. Donald went to work for John E. Mitchell Company which had a liberal hiring policy. The plant on Commerce St. near Fair Park produced first cotton gin equipment, then munitions for WWII, and finally auto air conditioners and even ICEE machines. Donald was not bitter about his accident; he compensated well and the assembly line work at Mitchell suited him. His son, James D. Sage, Jr. attended Eastfield College, is a electrical designer/draftsman for a consulting engineering firm, and lives in Garland. The latest generation, Joel T. Sage is married and has a son. The pioneer Sage family lives on in name and heritage.

James D. Sage, Jr. in front on Reinhardt bank/general store (blt.1903)

Submitted by Susanne Starling based on interviews with James D. Sage and his wife Hazel who provided photographs and gave a tour of old Reinhardt. Thanks also to Sue Chenault and M.C. Toyer (Dye family), Debra Walker and Bobby Don Johnson who provided information.

Wash pot from Sage farm planted with sage in James Sage’s backyard

Written by Susanne Starling