Lisbon Cemetery

Duane's take

The official marker for Lisbon Cemetery in Dallas County tells it this way, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Back in 1870, two men made a decision that would outlast just about everything else their little town ever built. Samuel Sloan (born in 1811, so no young dreamer by then) and E.

A. Gracey put their names on a deed and donated five acres of land near the center of a pioneer town called Lisbon. Five acres set aside for a church and a cemetery, right there at the heart of things.

Lisbon, mind you, is now part of Dallas. The town itself didn't survive, but those five acres? Those held on.

The oldest known grave belongs to James J. Dowd, who died October 24th, 1871. That's the earliest date the ground itself remembers.

That same year, 1871, a community church and school went up on that donated land; one building serving double duty, the way pioneer towns tended to do when folks were still figuring out what they needed most. In time, separate churches were built. The community was growing into itself.

And then, the way these stories so often turn, things started to pull away. The school closed in 1917. The churches moved on to other locations.

One by one, the living packed up and left that five-acre plot to the ones who couldn't. After that, the property was used only for burials. Decades passed.

The town of Lisbon faded into the memory of a city that swallowed it whole. But here's the thing about people who come from somewhere: they tend to remember it. In 1948, descendants of Lisbon's early settlers came together and formed the Lisbon Cemetery Association, for the express purpose of restoring and maintaining that site.

Samuel Sloan and E. A. Gracey gave five acres to a town that no longer exists.

What remained was tended by the children of the people who once walked its streets. Some gifts, it turns out, take generations to fully receive.

What the marker says

In 1870 Samuel Sloan (1811-92) and E. A. Gracey (1837 - 1915) donated five acres of land near the center of the pioneer town of Lisbon, now part of Dallas, as a church and cemetery site. The oldest known grave is that of James J. Dowd, who died Oct. 24, 1871. A community church and school was erected in 1871; later separate churches were built. After the school was closed in 1917 and the churches were moved to other locations, the property was used only for burials. Descendants of the town's early settlers formed the Lisbon Cemetery Association in 1948 to restore and maintain the site. Marker Sponsor: Lisbon Cemetery Association