Southland Cemetery, Old

Duane's take

The official marker's the word here, and this is my tellin' of it: the story of the Old Southland Cemetery in Dallas County, Texas. Now, 1910 is the year everything starts. A man named Thomas H.

Hall, born in 1867, and he would live all the way to 1965, which is a life well and truly lived, Thomas H. Hall looked around his community and reckoned that burying your dead four miles away was just too far. More than four miles, in fact.

So he did something about it. He dedicated four acres of land for a burial ground, and then he sat down and plotted out the original design for that graveyard himself. And here's the detail that gets me every time: the lot markers he used were made of bois d'arc wood.

Not iron. Not stone. Bois d'arc wood.

There's a whole philosophy of resourcefulness right there, if you're willin' to look for it. The oldest marked grave belongs to Edward Z. Motley, born 1885, died 1910; the very same year the cemetery was founded.

And if that wasn't enough grief for one year, Thomas Hall also buried his own brother that same year. George Byrd Hall, born 1878, died 1910. Two men, two graves, the brand new ground still fresh.

Now, not everyone who rests there came to Southland first. Two stones tell a different kind of story: the story of reinterment. Thomas E.

Vernoy, whose death date reads 1879, and Fannie Millar Sadler and her infant daughter, death date 1909, were both brought to this cemetery from somewhere else. Their stones carry earlier dates than the cemetery itself, which means the ground holds memory that reaches back before it was ever consecrated for the purpose. Eight years on, in 1918, a woman named Emma Motley, born 1856, and she'd live to 1946, Emma donated funds for something the cemetery had been missin': a stone and wrought iron arched entrance gate.

Now you had a threshold. Now you had a place that announced itself. A cemetery association formed around 1939, which is the community recognizin' that this ground meant something worth organizin' around.

But the land itself (the deed) didn't transfer to the trustees of the Southland Cemetery Association until 1973. That's when the heirs of Thomas H. Hall finally conveyed it over.

Sixty-three years after he picked up those bois d'arc markers and started drawin' his plan. The marker calls this place a reminder to Grand Prairie residents of their community's heritage. And I think that's exactly right.

One man saw a need, four miles felt like too far, and what he built is still there: stone by stone, gate and all, holding names that go all the way back to 1879.

What the marker says

Founded in 1910 by Thomas H. Hall (1867 - 1965), this cemetery was the result of a need to have a burial ground closer to the community than those existing more than four miles distant. Four acres of land were dedicated for use as a cemetery, and Hall began to plot the original plan for the design of the graveyard, using lot markers made of bois d'arc wood. The oldest marked grave in the cemetery is that of Edward Z. Motley (1885 - 1910). Also buried that year was Thomas Hall's brother, George Byrd Hall (1878 - 1910). Two stones which reflect earlier death dates (Thomas E. Vernoy, 1879, and Fannie Millar Sadler and infant daughter, 1909) document reinterment here from other locations. In 1918 Emma Motley (1856 - 1946) donated funds for the erection of a stone and wrought iron arched entrance gate for the cemetery. Although a cemetery association had been formed about 1939, the cemetery was not deeded to the trustees of the Southland Cemetery Association until 1973 by the heirs of Thomas H. Hall. The Old Southland Cemetery stands as a reminder to Grand Prairie residents of their community's heritage. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986