Five Mile Cemetery
Dallas, Dallas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Abraham and Lucy (Myers) Bast and their seven children moved here from Kentucky to join the Peters Colony. In 1859, Abraham Bast donated one acre for a nondenominational church and school on the south side of Five Mile Creek. The adjacent burial ground may have been used in the 1840s, but the earliest known graves are those of Bast and Arthur Ledbetter from 1859. Ledbetter lived in Dallas County eleven years and established four Baptist churches. James Horton and David King also donated land for the church and graveyard. Burials include area pioneers and two Confederate soldiers. Five Mile Baptist Church moved to another site in the 1960s. The cemetery has hundreds of burials and is still in use. Historic Texas Cemetery -2008
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The Bast family journeyed from Kentucky to join the Peters Colony, and in 1859 Abraham Bast donated an acre for a nondenominational church, school, and burial ground beside Five Mile Creek. Neighbors James Horton and David King added land as well. Among the burials are area pioneers and two Confederate soldiers, and the cemetery — with hundreds of graves — remains in use today.
Why it matters
Five Mile Cemetery embodies the Peters Colony settlement of North Texas and the Civil War generation that followed, holding the pioneers who built a community from open prairie.
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Related people
- · Abraham Bast
- · Lucy Bast
- · Arthur Ledbetter
Related events
- · Peters Colony settlement
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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