DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna tell it to you. Way back before Texas was even a state — when it was its own Republic, flying its own flag, doing things its own way — a man named John Beeman and his wife Emily packed up their family and headed here. John had been born in 1799, Emily in 1806, and together they were the kind of people who looked at raw, unsettled land and saw home.
Around 1842, they gained clear title to 640 acres. Six hundred and forty acres. That's not a farm, friend — that's a statement.
And on that land, they established what would become the Beeman Memorial Cemetery. Now here's where the story gets quiet for a moment, because the first known burial in that ground was a child. Holland Coffee Bryan, eleven months old, son of Margaret Beeman Bryan and her husband John Neely Bryan — Margaret being John and Emily's own daughter.
That little boy was laid to rest there in 1845. That's the kind of thing that roots a family to a place deeper than any deed ever could. John Beeman himself passed in 1856.
Emily lived on until 1892 — nearly four more decades, long enough to watch this country change in ways neither of them could have imagined back when they first staked their claim. Both of them are buried right there on that land they worked so hard to call their own, alongside other family members and early neighbors. More than a hundred graves in all.
The Beeman Memorial Cemetery isn't just a family plot — it's an important link in Dallas' history. And it all started with two people who came to Texas when Texas was still figuring out what it wanted to be.
What the marker says
John (1799 - 1856) and Emily Hunnicutt (1806 - 1892) Beeman brought their family to Texas during its days as a Republic. About 1842 they gained clear title to 640 acres of land on which they established this family cemetery. One of the first known burials, that of Holland Coffee Bryan, eleven-month-old son of their daughter Margaret and her husband, John Neely Bryan, took place in 1845. John and Emily are buried here, as are other family members and early neighbors. An important link in Dallas' history, the Beeman Memorial Cemetery contains more than 100 graves. (1984)