Marsh Cemetery
Farmers Branch, Dallas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1844, Harrison C. Marsh (1805-1889) and his wife, Mary "Polly" (Raymond) (1810-1888), natives of Harrison County, Kentucky, came from Independence, Missouri to Texas with their five children. They settled in Peters Colony on Farmers Branch Creek. Here they had two more children, and Harrison raised stock and farmed the land. Polly was a charter member of the Union Baptist Church, which later became First Baptist Church of Farmers Branch. The Marsh family grew, and many members became successful in farming, ranching, business, education and civic activities. Sons Thomas Corbin (1831-1899) and John David (1835-1900) both served as soldiers in the Confederate Army. Reflecting the Marshes' prominence in the community, the family name appears on a street, Marsh Lane, as well as on a school, The Thomas C. Marsh Junior High School. In the 1880s, John David donated one acre of land here for a family graveyard. Among the earliest burials were those of two children of a family passing through the area. The marker for Elizabeth Mcallister, who died in 1874, represents the earliest recorded death. The resting place for generations of Marshes and other area residents, the cemetery is still open to Marsh family descendants. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2002
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Harrison and Mary "Polly" Marsh brought their five children from Missouri to Texas in 1844, settling in Peters Colony along Farmers Branch Creek where they raised stock and farmed. Polly helped charter the church that became First Baptist of Farmers Branch, and the family prospered across farming, ranching, and civic life — with sons Thomas Corbin and John David serving in the Confederate Army. In the 1880s John David donated an acre for a family graveyard whose earliest recorded burial dates to 1874.
Why it matters
The Marsh Cemetery anchors the memory of a Peters Colony pioneer family whose name still marks the streets and schools of a community they helped settle before the Civil War.
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Related people
- · Harrison C. Marsh
- · Mary "Polly" Raymond Marsh
- · Thomas Corbin Marsh
- · John David Marsh
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Frankford Cemetery
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Bethel Cemetery
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Set aside before 1853 by Peters Colony pioneer James Parrish on his farm along the Elm Fork of the Trinity, this cemetery holds the layered history of a vanished community—smallpox victims, Confederate veterans, former slaves, and six people killed in an 1869 lynching. Of an estimated two hundred graves, all but two have been lost to vandalism and development, leaving the resting places of two small children as almost the only visible markers.
McCree Cemetery
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Mahulda Bonner McCree granted the first land for this cemetery in 1866, though burials had already taken place here during the Civil War years. Over time it grew to more than three acres, gathering the graves of Peters colonists, war veterans, and many families tied to the area's early Methodist and Baptist churches. It remains a well-documented record of early Dallas County settlement.
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