DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Out here in Dallas County, there's a piece of ground that holds a story going all the way back to the days when this whole stretch was still Peters Colony country. Isaac B.
Webb — born 1802 — and his wife Mary H. Webb — born 1816 — brought their family to this area in 1844. Now that's early.
That is frontier-early, when Dallas County wasn't much more than a name on a surveyor's map and the land had more questions than answers. But the Webbs weren't the kind of folks who waited for somebody else to build what needed building. Within a year of arriving, Isaac and Mary led the formation of a Methodist society — and not just any Methodist society.
The first church organized in all of Dallas County. Think about that for a moment. They hadn't even unpacked good before they were gathering neighbors and doing the Lord's work.
By 1846 they had themselves a log structure — called Webb Chapel — and that building pulled double duty, serving not only as a church but as the first school of this growing settlement. One building, doing the work of two, out on the edge of what was possible. But here is where the story turns, and it turns hard.
In 1847, the Webbs' seven-year-old daughter, Alice, fell ill and died. And when they laid that little girl to rest in the churchyard, that ground became a cemetery. Not by design.
By grief. The Webb family kept on, and so did the community around them, and over the years that cemetery received the Webb family and many other north Texas pioneers and their descendants. It has been holding their stories ever since.
Today the site is administered by the Webb Chapel Cemetery Association, designated a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2002. Some places earn their ground. This is one of them.
What the marker says
Isaac B. (1802-1880) and Mary H. (1816-1887) Webb and their family came to this area of the Peters Colony in 1844. Within a year, the couple led in the formation of a Methodist society, the first church organized in Dallas County. A log structure, known as Webb Chapel, that also served as the first school of this growing settlement, was built in 1846. The churchyard became a cemetery when the Webbs'seven-year-old daughter, Alice, fell ill and died in 1847. The Webb family and many other north Texas pioneers and their descendants are buried at this site that today is administered by the Webb Chapel Cemetery Association Historic Texas Cemetery – 2002