Fondren Cemetery
Fondren, Parker County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1854 William B. Fondren (1811-1863) and his wife Susannah (1816-1888) settled along nearby Dry Creek and the military road from Fort Worth to Fort Belknap. This family graveyard was established in the John W. Williams Survey, adjacent to Fondren's land. Gen. Edward H. Tarrant, for whom Tarrant County was named, died at the Fondren home in 1858 and was buried here for a time. The first marked grave is that of Fondren's son-in-law William Youngblood whose headstone, like others in the cemetery, reads: "Killed by Indians, 1860". This pioneer burial ground served until 1937. (1979)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1854 William B. Fondren and his wife Susannah settled beside Dry Creek along the military road linking Fort Worth and Fort Belknap, and a family graveyard soon took root nearby. General Edward H. Tarrant, namesake of Tarrant County, died at the Fondren home in 1858 and lay here for a time, while other early stones bear the stark epitaph "Killed by Indians, 1860." The pioneer burial ground served the frontier community until 1937.
Why it matters
A frontier cemetery on a fort-to-fort road, with graves of settlers slain in raids, records the dangers and losses of life at the edge of Texas settlement.
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Related people
- · William B. Fondren
- · Susannah Fondren
- · Edward H. Tarrant
- · William Youngblood
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Authon Cemetery
Authon, TX
This burial ground began as a family cemetery for Kentucky-born pioneer Isom Cranfill, whose 15-year-old son Linn Boyd was killed in an Indian attack near the family home in 1871. Sitting along the old Fort Worth–Fort Belknap Military Road, the site was later deeded to the Authon Church of Christ and remains a public cemetery holding many of the area's early settlers.
Porter Cemetery
Weatherford, TX
Robert Scott Porter, the first judge of Parker County, set aside this ground near his cabin as a family cemetery in 1867 after the death of his three-year-old granddaughter. Frontier violence marks the plot: the judge's grandson, and his daughter Mary with her husband and child, were killed by Indians and buried here. Of perhaps fifty burials only twenty-eight are identified, among them the judge and his wife Nancy Ann, whose descendants restored the cemetery in 1976.
Sam Savage, Captive of the Comanches
Mineral Wells, TX
In March 1866, five-year-old Sam Savage survived a Comanche raid on his father's Parker County farm that killed his father Bolin and his uncle James; Sam, his brother, and a cousin were carried off into captivity. After a posse failed to overtake the raiders, trader John Fields located the children that November and ransomed them for $414 at Fort Arbuckle. Sam went on to become a rancher, farmer, and champion fiddler, living to 90 and often recounting the months he spent learning the Comanche language and the bow before his return.
Weatherford
Weatherford, TX
Founded in 1856 and named for state senator and Confederate soldier Jefferson Weatherford, this Parker County seat sat squarely on the edge of the frontier. During the Civil War, settlers gathered here for protection against raids, and for years it stood as the last town between Fort Worth and far-off El Paso.