DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, picture a Tennessee lawyer in 1839, not a rancher, not a soldier, not a scout by trade, a lawyer, standing on a high bluff above the Trinity River, looking down at a shallow ford, and deciding right then and there: this is the place. That man was John Neely Bryan, and what he was imagining was a trading post.
Only thing was, when Bryan came back in 1841, the Indians he'd been counting on for trade were scarce. Another man might have packed it in and headed home. Not Bryan.
He looked at that same bluff, that same ford, and he platted a town instead. He installed a ferry. And he called the place Dallas.
The Republic of Texas took notice. In the 1840s, the Republic opened its Central National Road right out of that spot, running all the way to the U.S. border. Liberal land grants started pulling settlers into the area, and Bryan's little town on the Trinity started to mean something.
One of those settlers was a prosperous Illinois man named John Beeman (North Carolina heritage, family in tow) who staked his claim about eight miles from Bryan's town. And traveling with Beeman was his daughter Margaret. She was fifteen years old when she met John Neely Bryan at the Cross Roads Camp Ground in Bowie County.
In 1843, she and Bryan married. Together they became parents of six children. Margaret Beeman Bryan was no passive figure in this story.
She, her father, and other relatives strongly supported Bryan's work as, and I'm quoting the marker here, the Father of Dallas. That title meant something, and the people closest to him made sure he could carry it. But 1849 called, the way 1849 called just about everybody with a restless streak.
Bryan went to California for the gold rush. He gained no fortune. When he returned, what he did next says something about the man; he donated ninety-eight city lots for a courthouse and county seat.
Ninety-eight lots. Then he sold his ferry and his remaining interest in the townsite. The Father of Dallas, walking away from Dallas.
For many years he was in poor health. He died in Austin at sixty-seven. And then there was Margaret.
Margaret Beeman Bryan, who had met this man at a camp ground when she was fifteen, who had raised six children, who had stood behind the founding of a city, she lived to ninety-four years old. Long enough to watch Dallas grow to a population of over one hundred and fifty thousand people. She had seen the bluff.
She had seen the ferry. She had seen all of it become that. Not a bad view from ninety-four.
What the marker says
In 1839 Tennessee lawyer John Neely Bryan chose this high bluff and shallow ford on the Trinity River as site for a trading post. Finding Indians scarce when he returned in 1841, he platted a town, installed a ferry, and called the place Dallas. In the 1840s, the Republic of Texas opened its Central National Road from here to the U.S. border, and drew settlers to this area with liberal land grants. Margaret Beeman was a daughter of John Beeman, a prosperous man from Illinois, of North Carolina heritage. At 15, she met Bryan at the Cross Roads Camp Ground, Bowie County. Her father staked his claim about eight miles from Bryan's town. She and Bryan married in 1843, and became parents of six children. Margaret, her father, and other relatives strongly supported Bryan's work as "Father of Dallas." Bryan went to the California gold rush in 1849, but gained no fortune. After his return, he donated 98 city lots for a courthouse and county seat, then sold his ferry and remaining interest in the townsite. In poor health for many years, he died in Austin at 67. Margaret Beeman Bryan lived to age 94, and saw Dallas attain a population of over 150,000. (1978)