Dallas County, TXGenWeb

 

Located at 1201 Marilla Street in Dallas the north side of Dallas Convention Center in the Dallas Downtown Historic District. Marker can be reached from Young Street.

The area now known as Pioneer Cemetery is composed of the remnants of four early graveyards, The Graves, dating from the 1850s, include many of Dallas' early settlers and civic leaders.

Two of the graveyards that now make up Pioneer Cemetery were associated with early Dallas fraternal organizations. The earliest marked gave in the section once known as the Tannehill Lodge No. 52 Masonic Cemetery is that of Elizabeth McPherson, who died in 1853. R. P. Rogers (d. 1852) is the oldest known interment in the section once belonging to Dallas Lodge No. 44 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

Some of the land nearby was once used as a cemetery by the Hebrew Benevolent Association. The property was deeded to Congregation Emanuel in 1912, and in 1956, the graves were moved to the Emanuel Cemetery. The fourth section, known as Old City Cemetery, was formally deeded to the city of Dallas in 1871. Its oldest marked grave, that of John Henry Long, is dated 1870.

The last burials in what is now called Pioneer Cemetery took place in the latter part of the 1920s. The monuments that have remained over time are significant reminders of the history of the city of Dallas.

Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986

Marker photographed by Kayla Harper, November 8, 2020