DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Warren Angus Ferris Cemetery, out in Dallas County. Now, some men leave a mark on a place. Warren Angus Ferris left a mark on just about all of it.
Born in New York in 1810, he spent six years as a trapper and chronicler of the American West — six years of hard country, hard weather, and harder work — before he pointed himself toward the Republic of Texas in late 1836. And Texas, as Texas tends to do, put him to work. As official surveyor for Nacogdoches County, Ferris surveyed the Three Forks of the Trinity area and helped set the boundaries for Dallas and other nearby counties.
Think about that a moment. The lines on the map that define Dallas County — a man from New York drew those. He also wrote many articles for the early Dallas newspapers, so you could say he helped shape the place with his pen as much as his chain and compass.
But here's where the story turns quiet and heavy. In 1847, Warren Angus Ferris lost his son — Warren Ferris, Jr. — and on the family farm, a cemetery was established. That's how these things began, more often than not.
One grave, then another. Five of the Ferris children came to rest in that family plot, and in time, so did Warren Angus himself, gone in 1873, and his second wife, Frances Moore, who had died in 1869. The cemetery didn't stay just a family matter.
Early Dallas County settlers found their way there too. Benjamin Dye, gone in 1852, and his wife Sarah, who outlasted him by twenty-seven years before she followed in 1879. Wesley Chenault, buried there in 1886, along with two of his wives — Elizabeth, who died in 1858, and Lucy Sage, who died in 1863.
And the Sage family brought more of their own. Then came the Atwoods and the Bells, the Boyettes and the Chendulls, the Graces and the Herndons, the Kirbys, Pembertons, Ryans, Tabors, and Tuckers. A whole world of early Dallas County, layered into that ground.
Estimates put the total at over one hundred graves. Over one hundred lives, one hundred stories, one hundred families who shaped this county in its earliest years. One of the last interments was that of the Reverend R.
T. Taylor, in 1906. And then — silence.
And then something worse than silence. Vandalism. By 1970, of all those markers standing over all those graves, the Reverend Taylor's stone was the only one left.
One stone. For a hundred souls. That's the thing about a place like this — the names on the marker now are doing the work the gravestones can no longer do.
Ferris, Dye, Chenault, Sage, Atwood, Bell, Boyette — they're spoken again every time someone stops to read. Which is, I suppose, its own kind of surveyorship.
What the marker says
New York native Warren Angus Ferris (1810 - 1873) spent six years as a trapper and chronicler of the American West before moving to the Republic of Texas in late 1836. As official surveyor for Nacogdoches County he surveyed the Three Forks of the Trinity area and helped set the boundaries for Dallas and other nearby counties. He wrote many articles for early Dallas newspapers. In 1847, upon the death of his son Warren Ferris, Jr., this cemetery was established on the family farm. Five Ferris children are buried in this family plot, as well as Warren Angus and his second wife, Frances Moore (d.1869). Other early Dallas County settlers interred in this cemetery are Benjamin Dye (d. 1852) and his wife Sarah (d. 1879); Wesley Chenault (d. 1886) and two of his wives, Elizabeth (d. 1858) and Lucy Sage (d. 1863). Many other members of the Sage family as well as the Atwood, Bell, Boyette, Chendull, Grace, Herndon, Kirby, Pemberton, Ryan, Tabor, and Tucker families are also buried here. One of the last interments was that of the Rev. r. T. Taylor in 1906. Due to vandalism, his gravestone was the only remaining marker by 1970. It is estimated that the cemetery contains over one hundred graves. (1988) Historic Texas Cemetery