Dorris-Brock House
Grapevine, Tarrant County, Texas
Marker Inscription
DR. WILLIAM E. DORRIS (1832-1905) BROUGHT HIS FAMILY TO GRAPEVINE IN JANUARY 1871 AFTER A THREE-MONTH TRIP FROM STARKVILLE, MISSISSIPPI. DORRIS WAS A CAPTAIN IN J. B. DUNN’S COMPANY (MISSISSIPPI RANGERS) IN THE CIVIL WAR AND HIS FIRST WIFE, ELIZABETH (HARMON), DIED DURING THE WAR. ARRIVING HERE WITH HIS SECOND WIFE, MIRANDA (FERGUSON) AND CHILDREN, DORRIS PURCHASED A 37-ACRE FARM FROM A. B. COBLE, JUST NORTH OF ARCHIBALD F. LEONARD’S STORE ESTABLISHED IN 1849. THE FARM WAS IDEALLY LOCATED NEAR MOREHEAD BRANCH AND COBLE BRANCH, WHERE GOOD WATER WAS ABUNDANT. DR. DORRIS WAS A MEMBER OF THE LOCAL MASONIC LODGE AND THE BAPTIST CHURCH, AND SERVED TWO YEARS AS A GRAPEVINE SCHOOL BOARD TRUSTEE. HIS SON THOMAS BENTON DORRIS CONTINUED THE FAMILY MEDICAL TRADITION IN GRAPEVINE FOR MORE THAN THIRTY YEARS, ALSO SERVING AS A LOCAL SURGEON FOR THE RAILROAD AND TEACHING A RED CROSS NURSING CLASS DURING WORLD WAR I. DR. WILLIAM E. DORRIS MOVED TO ROANOKE (DENTON CO.) IN 1889, AND SEVERAL PROMINENT GRAPEVINE FAMILIES OWNED THIS FARMSTEAD UNTIL JOHN WORD AND BESSIE (BUSHONG) BROCK BOUGHT THE PROPERTY IN 1905. JOHN WORD BROCK WAS A FARMER AND ALSO A MAIL CARRIER FOR TEN YEARS BY HORSE AND BUGGY. THE BROCKS RAISED TWELVE CHILDREN IN THIS HOUSE, WHICH STAYED IN THE FAMILY FOR 85 YEARS. THE L-PLAN FARMHOUSE FEATURES A CROSS GABLE ROOF AND SHED ROOF PORCH. ITS FOLK VICTORIAN STYLING INCLUDES NARROW CLAPBOARD SIDING, TWO-OVER-TWO WOOD WINDOWS, TURNED SPINDLE PORCH SUPPORTS, DOORWAYS AND WINDOW SURROUNDS WITH FLUTED MOLDINGS AND MEDALLIONS, BEADBOARD WALLS AND TALL BASEBOARDS. THE ORIGINAL HOUSE WAS ONE ROOM DEEP; THE BROCKS EXPANDED THE HOUSE WITH A REAR ADDITION IN THE 1920s.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Dr. William E. Dorris brought his family to Grapevine in 1871 after a three-month wagon journey from Mississippi, having served as a Confederate captain during the Civil War. He bought a 37-acre farm near good water and put down roots in the growing community, where his son continued the family's medical practice for decades. The Folk Victorian farmhouse later passed to the Brock family, who raised twelve children here across 85 years.
Why it matters
The farmstead embodies the postwar migration of Southern families to Texas and the slow transformation of raw farmland into settled community.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · William E. Dorris
- · John Word Brock
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Nash Farm
Grapevine, TX
Established in 1859 by Kentucky migrants Thomas Jefferson Nash and his wife Elizabeth, this 450-acre farm is one of the last surviving nineteenth-century agrarian sites in North Texas. During the Civil War the Nash brothers left to serve with Confederate troops while Elizabeth and the children kept the farm; all returned to expand their holdings. The 1869 I-house, a crib barn, cistern, and family cemetery still stand, and in 1888 the Nashes gave right-of-way to the Cotton Belt Railroad that spurred the region's growth.
Hawkins Cemetery
Arlington, TX
Named for Tennessee-born pioneer Harvey Hawkins, who received a 160-acre land grant signed by Governor Sam Houston in 1860, this cemetery began as a family plot for the Tate Springs community. By local memory an enslaved man named Poly Penn was the first buried here, though his grave is unmarked; the earliest lettered stone dates to 1868. As the settlement grew, the plot became a public burial ground in 1890, chronicling the pioneer families who put down roots in the mid-1800s.
Dove Community
Southlake, TX
After the 1843 Bird's Fort Treaty between the Republic of Texas and several Native nations opened this land to settlers, families streamed into the Eastern Cross Timbers and by 1846 had organized the Lonesome Dove Baptist Church and school. The village of Dove grew up around a store and post office at the crossing of Dove and Lonesome Dove roads, prospering on cotton, melons, and dairy, with a swimming hole that doubled as a baptismal site. The community endured until the federal government completed Lake Grapevine in 1952 and Southlake annexed the area in 1979.
White's Chapel Cemetery
Southlake, TX
Tucked into a corner of what was once rural Tarrant County, this pioneer burying ground took root around 1851, when—by local memory—a child who died on a passing wagon train was laid to rest in the raw prairie soil. Its oldest documented grave dates to 1872, and many of the earliest are marked only by native red sandstone or unlettered fieldstones. Among the dead are Civil War veterans and a former state legislator, silent witnesses to the settlement of this stretch of North Texas.