Overton Cemetery
Dallas, Dallas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
THE OVERTON CEMETERY IS LOCATED NEAR THE SITE OF WILLIAM PERRY OVERTON’S HOME, BUILT IN 1853-54, ON LAND ORIGINALLY A PORTION OF THE DUGOLD MACFARLAND SURVEY NO. 985 OF 1280 ACRES. MACFARLAND RECEIVED THE BOUNTY LAND FROM THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS FOR HIS PARTICIPATION IN THE WAR WITH MEXICO AND THEN ASSIGNED HIS PATENT TO JOHN NOLEN, A LAND MANAGER. THE LAND WAS THEN DEEDED TO AARON OVERTON IN 1851 FOR THE PAYMENT OF BACK TAXES. NORTH CAROLINA NATIVE AARON OVERTON (1784-1860) AND HIS SONS, CASWELL C. (1816-?) AND WILLIAM PERRY (1823-1903), WERE AMONG THE FIRST TO COME TO THE AREA, SETTLING ON THE WEST SIDE OF THE TRINITY RIVER IN 1844. THE FIRST HOME, ERECTED BY AARON, WAS ONE OF THE FIRST FRAME HOUSES, AND NOW ONE OF THE OLDEST HOUSES, IN THE COUNTY. THE HOMESTEAD WAS WELL KNOWN IN ITS TIME BY PIONEERS FOR THE OVERTONS’ GRIST MILL AND HOSPITALITY. THE FIRST FAMILY MEMBER BURIED IN THE CEMETERY WAS LIZZIE E. OVERTON (d. 1870), DAUGHTER OF WILLIAM PERRY AND WIFE MARTHA. MOST OF THE GRAVE MARKERS INSIDE THE FENCED AREA ARE FOR OVERTON FAMILY MEMBERS, INCLUDING WILLIAM PERRY’S SONS CASWELL (d. 1873) AND OSCAR ALONZO (d. 1880). HENRY C. DAVIS (d. 1889), FATHER OF WILLIAM PERRY’S SECOND WIFE, JESSIE DAVIS PRICE, WAS ALSO BURIED HERE AFTER BEING STRUCK BY A TRAIN ON THE NEARBY RAILROAD TRACKS. OTHER GRAVES BELONG TO THOSE WHO LIVED ON THEIR LAND AND FRIENDS SUCH AS DR. KIAZA TSUKAHARA (1873-1928), KNOWN AS “DR. JAP,” WHO IS BURIED IN THE FRONT CORNER OF THE FENCED PORTION OF THE CEMETERY, AND OLLIE LEATHERWOOD (1894-1979), WHO MOVED INTO THE OVERTON HOUSE. IT IS ALSO SAID THAT THERE ARE THREE CONFEDERATE VETERANS WHO WERE BEING CARED FOR IN THE OVERTONS’ HOUSE BURIED TO THE LEFT OF THE GATE IN UNMARKED GRAVES.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When North Carolina native Aaron Overton and his sons crossed to the west side of the Trinity River in 1844, they were among the very first families in what would become Dallas County, raising one of the county's earliest frame houses and running a grist mill famous for its hospitality. The land itself had passed through the hands of a Mexican War veteran who received it as bounty from the Republic of Texas before it was deeded to the Overtons for back taxes. The family cemetery, begun in 1870, holds Overtons alongside neighbors, a doctor, and, by tradition, three Confederate veterans nursed in the family home and buried in unmarked graves.
Why it matters
The Overton homestead marks the Anglo-American frontier settlement of North Texas, tying together the bounty-land legacy of the war with Mexico and the Civil War generation that followed.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
The Overton Cemetery marks the very beginning of Anglo-American settlement in what became Dallas County. When Aaron Overton and his sons crossed to the west side of the Trinity River in 1844, Texas itself was young — this was the era of the Early Republic, just before statehood, when North Texas was frontier country and newcomers were among the first to break ground.
The land carried a story typical of the age. It was originally part of a large survey granted as bounty land — a reward the Republic of Texas gave for service in the war with Mexico. That patent passed through a land manager and was eventually deeded to Aaron Overton in 1851 for the payment of back taxes. Behind a single plot of Texas soil lay the whole machinery of how the young republic paid its soldiers and settled its wilderness.
As the decades passed, the Overton homestead lived through the Civil War era, and the cemetery came to hold that generation too. From a lone frame house on the open prairie to a family burial ground surrounded by the growth of Dallas, this place spans the frontier's transformation into a modern city.
People & events
The founding family were North Carolina natives. Aaron Overton (1784–1860) and his sons Caswell and William Perry were among the first to settle the area in 1844. Aaron raised one of the county's earliest frame houses — later remembered as one of its oldest — and the homestead became well known among pioneers for the family's grist mill and open hospitality. In a thinly settled land, a mill and a welcoming table made a family a cornerstone of the community.
The cemetery's first grave was that of Lizzie E. Overton, daughter of William Perry and his wife Martha, who died in 1870. Most of the markers within the fenced ground belong to Overtons, including William Perry's sons Caswell and Oscar Alonzo. But the burials reach beyond the family. Henry C. Davis, father of William Perry's second wife, was buried here after being struck by a train on the nearby railroad tracks — a stark sign of the new age arriving on iron rails.
The cemetery also holds those bound to the family by land and friendship: Dr. Kiaza Tsukahara, known locally as "Dr. Jap," buried in a front corner, and Ollie Leatherwood, who moved into the Overton house. And by long tradition, three Confederate veterans who were being nursed in the Overtons' home are said to lie in unmarked graves to the left of the gate — a reminder of how the Civil War touched even remote homesteads.
Its place in the American story
The Overton homestead ties together two great chapters of the nineteenth-century American story: the frontier settlement of the West and the coming of the Civil War generation. The land itself was born of the war with Mexico, granted as bounty for military service, and it passed into the hands of a pioneer family who helped plant Anglo-American settlement in North Texas.
Their grist mill and reputation for hospitality speak to how frontier communities functioned — how a single family could become a gathering point and a lifeline for scattered neighbors. The arrival of the railroad, which claimed the life of one man buried here, marks the moment when the isolated frontier began giving way to a connected, industrializing nation.
And the graves said to hold three Confederate veterans, nursed in the family home and buried without markers, fold the national tragedy of the Civil War into this one small plot. A family cemetery like this becomes a chronicle of America's westward reach and the generation that lived through its greatest internal conflict — all readable in the names and stories gathered behind a single fence.
If you visit
Come to Overton Cemetery to stand at the roots of Dallas County. This is one of the places where the county's story begins — near the site of a frame house built in 1853–54, on land that a pioneer family claimed when this was open frontier. Approach it as a small, dense archive of early Texas rather than a grand monument.
Inside the fenced area, look for the cluster of Overton family stones and let the marker's story populate them: the first grave of young Lizzie, the sons who followed, the father-in-law killed on the railroad, the friends and workers who shared the family's land. Note the front corner where Dr. Tsukahara was laid to rest, and the ground to the left of the gate where, by tradition, three unnamed Confederate veterans lie.
For a road trip through Dallas history, it's a grounding first stop — the frontier chapter that came before the skyline. Give yourself a few unhurried minutes to read the names and imagine the grist mill, the prairie, and the hospitality that once made this homestead a landmark for travelers.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Aaron Overton
- · William Perry Overton
Themes & tags
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