Loving, James and Margaret

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it: the story of James and Margaret Loving, as recorded right here in Dallas County. Now, when folks talk about the people who built this part of Texas, they're usually talkin' about somebody who showed up after the hard part was over. James and Margaret Loving were not those people.

They were the sixteenth family in all of Dallas County. Sixteenth. You could've counted the county's families on your fingers and had a few left over.

They came the long way. Covered wagon and flatboat, all the way from Kentucky to Texas; that journey began in 1843, and they made it as members of the Peters Colony. By 1844, they had arrived in Dallas County, which at that point wasn't even organized as a county yet.

There were no courthouses, no county seats, no infrastructure of any kind. Just land. And on that land (a 640-acre grant, two miles east of where this marker stands, issued through Mercer's Colony), James and Margaret got to work.

They built a log cabin. They raised corn. Margaret wove cloth.

And when they needed salt (because salt is not optional, not if you're tryin' to preserve food and survive a frontier winter), they boiled soil from a salt lick to make their own. Let that settle for a moment. They made their own salt from the ground itself.

They had eight children through all of this. Now, the name Loving carries weight in Texas history. James was a brother of Oliver Loving, the pioneer trail drive legend.

That kind of grit, that westward pull, it ran in the family. You can see it in everything James and Margaret built out of nearly nothing. But the story doesn't end gently.

James Loving was killed by a horse thief in 1869. Margaret lived on until 1877. She had come to Texas in 1843, survived the unorganized frontier, raised eight children, and outlasted her husband by eight years.

The sixteenth family in Dallas County. Remember that number the next time you're movin' through this country. Somebody was here first, buildin' it one log at a time.

What the marker says

James and Margaret Loving 1811 - 1869) (1820 - 1877) The sixteenth family in Dallas County. Came by covered wagon and flatboat from Kentucky to Texas in 1843 as members of the Peters Colony. Arrived in Dallas County (then unorganized) in 1844. On a 640-acre grant (2 mi. east) from Mercer's Colony, they built log cabin, raised corn, wove cloth, and boiled soil from salt lick to make own salt. Had 8 children. Loving, a brother of pioneer trail drive Oliver Loving, was killed by a horse thief in 1869.