Mount Calvary Cemetery
Dallas, Dallas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Pioneer settlers used this site for burials as early as the 1840s. The oldest known grave is that of Amanda L. Houx (1829 - 1847). In 1868 William Huffhines donated a two-acre tract, which included the early graves, to Mount Calvary Baptist Church. A frame church building stood here until 1885, when the congregation moved to Richardson and later became the First Baptist Church. More land was added to the burial ground by C. C. Huffhines in 1896 and C. B. Chick in 1925 and 1935. A cemetery association, formed in 1924, cares for the almost 800 graves here.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Pioneer families were burying their dead on this Dallas-area rise as early as the 1840s, the oldest known grave dating to 1847. In 1868 William Huffhines deeded two acres, including those first graves, to Mount Calvary Baptist Church, which met here until its congregation moved on in 1885. More land was added over the decades, and a cemetery association formed in 1924 still tends the nearly 800 graves.
Why it matters
The cemetery preserves the presence of the earliest Anglo settlers of the Dallas frontier and the church community that grew up among them.
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Related people
- · Amanda L. Houx
- · William Huffhines
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Floyd Pioneer Cemetery
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In 1855 John B. Floyd of Kentucky bought 900 acres of North Texas prairie and settled his family here, setting aside an acre in the 1860s for a family burial ground. Its early graves tell frontier stories in miniature: strangers' children lost to diphtheria and a bandit killed at Floyd's Inn. Floyd and his wife Julia Ann lie here still, their pioneer plot long since bordered by the modern Restland Memorial Park.
McKamy Spring
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Long before European or American settlers reached North Texas, Native peoples camped around the natural spring now called McKamy Spring, one of the few above-ground springs still surviving in the area. Early settlers of Breckenridge—the community that preceded Richardson—used it as Bowser Spring until the railroad drew the town elsewhere. Richardson's first mayor, Thomas McKamy, later drew on the spring to supply water for wells and even the construction of the Central Expressway, bought the surrounding land, and placed a marker there honoring the Native Americans who had used it before him.
First Baptist Church of Richardson
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Founded in 1865 as Mt. Calvary Baptist Church with nineteen charter members, this congregation first met in the Elm Grove Schoolhouse before pioneer William Huffhines donated two acres for a sanctuary. In 1885 the members voted to move five miles north to the new railroad town of Richardson, where a succession of sanctuaries rose and fell to storms over the decades. The church took its present name in 1954.
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