Pleasant Mound Cemetery
Dallas, Dallas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
At the intersection of two well-traveled pioneer roads, now Buckner Blvd. and Scyene Rd., this cemetery serves as a reflection of the heritage of this area. Burials took place on the property as early as 1869, but the first marked grave, that of William L. Knox, dates to 1881. In that year, Newton and Catherine (Beeman) Hustead formally donated the land to the Pleasant Mound Methodist church for use as a cemetery. Over the years, additional acreage was added to the cemetery, which has been maintained by the Pleasant Mound Cemetery Association since 1906.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Set where two well-traveled pioneer roads crossed, this cemetery saw its first burials as early as 1869, with the earliest marked grave dating to 1881. That year Newton and Catherine (Beeman) Hustead deeded the land to the Pleasant Mound Methodist Church for use as a cemetery. A cemetery association has cared for the grounds since 1906.
Why it matters
Rural cemeteries like this one preserve the names and lineage of the pioneer families who first settled the Texas prairie.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the years after the Civil War, the land east and southeast of Dallas was rural prairie. Farm families were settling it, and they traveled on roads that linked scattered communities to the growing town. Dallas itself was still small, though railroads arriving in the early 1870s would soon set off a period of rapid growth.
Rural communities of that era usually formed around a few shared institutions: a church, a school and a burying ground. Methodists in particular had a strong presence on the Texas frontier, and their congregations often served as the social center of farm neighborhoods spread across a wide area.
A cemetery at a crossroads was a practical choice. Families coming from different directions could reach it easily, and over time places like this became landmarks in their own right. They tied a dispersed community to a single shared piece of ground.
People & events
People were burying their dead here as early as 1869, more than a decade before anyone formally set the land aside. Those earliest graves suggest that the community had already chosen this spot. Some of them may never have had lasting markers, which was common for frontier burials, when families often used fieldstones or wooden boards that didn't survive.
The oldest marked grave belongs to William L. Knox and dates to 1881. That same year, Newton and Catherine (Beeman) Hustead formally donated the land to the Pleasant Mound Methodist Church for use as a cemetery. Their gift turned an informal burying ground into a permanent, recognized one, held for the community through the church.
The cemetery grew. More land was added over the years, and in 1906 the Pleasant Mound Cemetery Association took over its care. It has looked after the grounds ever since. That kind of organized volunteer stewardship is what has kept many old rural cemeteries intact as cities grew up around them.
Its place in the American story
Pleasant Mound shows how many American communities first marked their place on the land. Before there were city limits or paved streets, there were crossroads, churches and burying grounds. Cemeteries like this one often outlast every other trace of the farm neighborhoods that founded them.
The Hustead gift reflects a common American practice. Landowning families deeded ground to a church or community for burials, which put a private family's generosity in service of a public need. Gifts like that are behind countless country cemeteries across the nation.
The cemetery association is also part of a broad tradition. As older rural cemeteries were swallowed by expanding cities in the twentieth century, associations of descendants and neighbors often stepped in to keep them from neglect. Pleasant Mound, now within a major American city, shows how that care can keep pioneer history visible long after the prairie around it has changed.
If you visit
You'll find the cemetery where two old pioneer roads crossed, at what is now Buckner Boulevard and Scyene Road. Pause to notice the setting: today it's busy city streets, but the location itself is the clue to why the cemetery is here. Families once traveled these routes to reach this shared ground.
Walk the grounds respectfully and look at how the headstones vary in age and style. Keep in mind that burials go back to 1869 but the oldest marked grave is from 1881, so some of the earliest residents may lie in unmarked ground. The additional acreage and the long care of the cemetery association show how the place grew with the community.
Pleasant Mound is a quiet counterpoint to a day exploring Dallas, a chance to step away from the city's modern pace and think about the farm families who came first. This is a cemetery still cared for by a local association, so please treat it as an active place of remembrance and leave graves and grounds undisturbed.
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
- · Newton Hustead
- · Catherine Hustead
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Pleasant Mound "Public" Cemetery
Dallas, TX
This burial ground lies within the 1,640-acre survey of James Jackson Beeman, who came from Illinois in 1840 and, as uncle by marriage to Dallas founder John Neely Bryan, helped cut the first road through the Trinity bottoms, named Turtle Creek, and plat the city of Dallas in 1842. In March 1848 Beeman buried his wife Sarah Crawford Beeman at the northeast corner of his land and later opened the plot to his neighbors. Formally organized under trustees in 1887, it remains a resting place of the region's earliest pioneers.
Pleasant Mound Methodist Church
Dallas, TX
This congregation grew from a shared frontier meeting house in the farming hamlet of Scyene, a two-story building that doubled as store, Masonic lodge, and school where several denominations worshiped side by side. The Methodists built a log sanctuary in 1876 and relocated to the Pleasant Mound community in 1878, replacing their buildings repeatedly as membership grew. The tradition of shared worship gave way to separate congregations after 1900, but neighbors still gathered for annual homecomings for decades.
W.W. Glover Cemetery
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When George W. Glover acquired this Dallas County land in 1844, Texas was barely a decade past its revolution and still a sparsely settled frontier. The ground became a burial place in 1857 with the interment of five-year-old Sarah Beeman, and Glover later deeded it to his son William Wald Glover, for whom the cemetery is named. More than seventy pioneer families rest here, including early civic leader Richard Lagow, in a community graveyard used until 1951.
Scyene Road, Old
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Beginning as a buffalo trail, Scyene Road became one of the earliest roads in Dallas County, linking the town of Scyene with Dallas — a full day's wagon journey west — and reaching east toward Jefferson and Shreveport. Settled in the 1840s and 1850s and named for a town in ancient Egypt, Scyene reportedly sheltered outlaws such as Belle Starr and Jesse James along this route in the 1870s. Once a thriving town with a post office, stores, school, and churches, Scyene declined after the Texas & Pacific Railroad bypassed it in 1872.