Fuget Cemetery

Duane's take

The official marker tells it this way, and I'm just the one passing it along — this is Duane, and this is Fuget Cemetery. Now, before there was a Dallas County to speak of, before there was much of anything out here on the North Texas prairie, a couple by the name of Rowland and Anna Huitt — you'll sometimes see it spelled Hewitt — received a patent on six hundred and forty acres of this land. That was 1843, and they'd come all the way from Arkansas as Peters colonists to claim it.

Rowland Huitt didn't stay quiet for long. Four years after that patent, in 1847, his brother John — the sitting sheriff of Dallas County — died in office. And just like that, Rowland stepped up to fill that unexpired term, becoming the second sheriff of Dallas County.

Two brothers. One county. One of them didn't make it out of the year.

Out here on that same land, a cemetery was taking shape. The oldest marked grave belongs to a J. H.

Snow, dated 1864 — though if you listen to the soil, there may be souls resting here from even earlier, their markers long since lost or never placed at all. Over the years, pioneer families from Grand Prairie found their way here, infants too, and veterans — men who'd served in the Spanish-American War and in World War I. The last burial was in 1951.

A long run for a quiet piece of ground. Now, the name — Fuget Cemetery. Sometimes written Fugat.

Sometimes Fugitt. Oral tradition says it belonged to a family by that name who lived in this area during the 1800s. But here's the thing: their historic association with the property has never been determined.

And if you walk these grounds looking for that surname on a tombstone, you won't find it. Not a single one. The name floated down through generations of spoken word and stuck — without a stone to back it up.

Then the twentieth century arrived and changed everything around this little cemetery without moving it an inch. In 1928, three hundred acres of farmland surrounding the graveyard were leased by the City of Dallas to the U.S. Army, and Hensley Field was developed right there.

By 1941, the property had become a U.S. Naval Air Station. And since 1949, it's been Navy personnel maintaining these graves — sailors tending the resting places of pioneer settlers, infants, and old wartime veterans from a different era entirely.

There's something in that arrangement that deserves a moment. A graveyard named for a family that left no stones. Maintained by a branch of the military that came along a century after the first burial.

Out on land once patented to a man who became sheriff the year his brother died. Fuget Cemetery doesn't shout its history. It just holds it.

What the marker says

This property was part of a 640-acre tract of land patented to Peters colonists Rowland and Anna Huitt (also Hewitt) in 1843. The Huits immigrated to this area from Arkansas, and in 1847 Rowland became the second sheriff of Dallas County by filling the unexpired term of his brother John, who died that year. The oldest marked grave, that of J. H. Snow, dates to 1864, though unmarked graves may date earlier. Members of pioneer Grand Prairie families, infants, and veterans of the Spanish-American War and World War I are among those interred here. The last burial took place in 1951. According to oral tradition, this graveyard is named after the Fuget (also spelled Fugat, Fugitt) family, who lived in this area during the 1800s. Their historic association with the property has not been determined, and no tombstones here bear the surname. In 1928, 300 acres of farmland surrounding the cemetery were leased by the City of Dallas to the U.S. Army for development as Hensley Field. In 1941 the property became a U. S. Naval Air Station and since 1949, Navy personnel have maintained the graveyard. It is a reminder of the area's early pioneer heritage.