Ayres Cemetery
Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1861 Benjamin Patton Ayres (ca. 1801-62) and his wife, Emily (Cozart) (ca. 1811-63), bought a 320-acre farm and set aside two acres on this hillside as a family cemetery. Ayres, who had served as the second Tarrant County clerk and who helped organize the Fort Worth First Christian Church, was the first buried here. An unknown number of graves, which lie outside the fenced family plot, include victims of spring fevers and Trinity River floods. None of their fieldstones have survived, but the Ayres Cemetery remains as a symbol of the area's early settlers. (1984)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1861 Benjamin Patton Ayres and his wife Emily bought a 320-acre farm and set aside two acres on this hillside as a family burial ground. Ayres, the second Tarrant County clerk and a founder of Fort Worth's First Christian Church, was the first laid to rest here. Beyond the fenced family plot lie an unknown number of graves — victims of spring fevers and Trinity River floods — whose fieldstone markers have long since vanished.
Why it matters
The cemetery is a quiet monument to Tarrant County's founding generation, preserving the memory of early settlers whose ordinary hardships shaped the community that became Fort Worth.
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Related people
- · Benjamin Patton Ayres
- · Emily Cozart Ayres
Themes & tags
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