DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker records about Thompson Public Cemetery in Tarrant County. Pull over if you can — this one's got layers. It starts, as so many Texas stories do, with an act of neighborly kindness in hard times.
The year was 1870. Captain Henry J. Thompson — Chief Justice of Jack County, Texas Ranger, Fort Worth Mason — owned a piece of ground out west of Fort Worth.
His neighbor, a Confederate veteran named William Terry Allen, had just lost his young wife. Her name was Sarah Anne Grant Allen, though folks called her Fannie. She was twenty-one years old.
Captain Thompson allowed William to bury Fannie on his property, one-third of a mile from the Allen log cabin home. That single burial established what we now know as Thompson Public Cemetery. And the grief didn't stop there.
Six months after Fannie was laid to rest, her son George E. Allen joined her in that ground. Then in 1884, another son — Willie Allen — followed.
William T. Allen himself was buried there in 1893. The Allen family, scattered one by one into the same quiet piece of earth where it all began.
Now here's something the marker takes care to tell you. William Allen eventually remarried, and the woman he married was Theodocia Grant — known as Docia — the younger sister of his first wife, Fannie. Docia Grant Allen lived until 1931, and she is buried right next to William.
There was a third Grant sister too: Martha Jane Grant, who lived from 1842 to 1885, and who had married a Confederate veteran of her own, a man named John Jay Ingram. Martha Jane is buried in the same cemetery. Three sisters — Fannie, Docia, and Martha Jane — all Grant women, all finding their final rest in this one piece of Captain Thompson's land.
The cemetery picked up names along the way the way old Texas places do — Allen, Farmer, Thompson Community Cemetery, Thompson Neighbors' Cemetery, Thompson Cemetery. Any one of those names tells you something true about it. Because the ground holds more than one family's story.
Buried here are the Farmer brothers — Joseph, Elijah, and David — the first men to build homes in what became White Settlement. And James Ventioner, founder of River Oaks, rests here alongside his wife, Millie Farmer. The marker records that James and Millie were the first couple married in White Settlement, back in 1851.
That's the beginning of a whole community, right there in a single headstone. Then there's Cleo Akins. A child from a wagon train just passing through.
No date on her grave — just pebbles, carefully arranged to spell out her name. Somebody made sure she wouldn't go unnamed in the ground. I find it hard to move past that detail too quickly.
Also buried here: Dollie Shrewder Smith, widow of Alexander Purnell Smith, a veteran of both the Civil War and the Mexican War. Her son and her father are buried alongside her. This cemetery started with one young woman named Fannie, buried by the grace of a neighbor in 1870.
What grew around her was the whole pioneer fabric of White Settlement, River Oaks, and Westworth Village — families who built the first homes, founded towns, passed through on wagons, and put down roots that lasted generations. Thompson Public Cemetery holds all of it. One-third mile from where the Allen log cabin once stood.
What the marker says
In 1870, Captain Henry J. Thompson, Chief Justice of Jack County, Texas Ranger and Fort Worth Mason, allowed his neighbor and Confederate veteran, William Terry Allen, to bury his first wife, Sarah Anne “Fannie” Grant Allen (1849-1870), on his property. This established Thompson Public Cemetery, one-third mile from the Allen log cabin home. Six months later, their son George E. Allen joined her, followed by another son, Willie Allen, in 1884. William T. Allen later was buried in the cemetery in 1893. His late wife’s younger sister who became his second wife, Theodocia “Docia” Earnest Grant (1854-1931), is buried next to him. A third Grant sister buried in the cemetery, Martha Jane Grant (1842-1885), married Confederate veteran John Jay Ingram. Thompson Public Cemetery has also been known by other names, such as Allen, Farmer, Thompson Community Cemetery, Thompson Neighbors’ Cemetery, and Thompson Cemetery. Many pioneer settler families of White Settlement, River Oaks and Westworth Village are buried in the cemetery, including James Ventioner, founder of River Oaks, and his wife, Millie Farmer. They were the first couple married in White Settlement in 1851. Cleo Akins, a child from a wagon train passing through the area, was laid to rest in an undated grave, with pebbles spelling out her name. Dollie Shrewder Smith, a widow of Civil War and Mexican War Veteran Alexander Purnell Smith, is buried in the cemetery along with her son and father. Also buried in the cemetery are the Farmer brothers, Joseph, Elijah, and David, who were the first to build homes in White Settlement. Today this cemetery is a reminder and a reflection of the lives of pioneer settlers and their descendants. Historic Texas Cemetery – 2010