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Early RepublicReconstruction & Gilded Age

Pleasant Valley Cemetery

Cedar Hill, Dallas County, Texas

Marker Inscription

The families of James Holland, Jacob and Drusilla Boydstun, Isaac Lowe, and Robert Ground immigrated from Illinois to this area in 1848. When the Boydstun's son, Henry, died later that year, he was buried at this site on the family farm. In 1870 the Boydstuns deeded 3.5 acres surrounding their son's grave site for cemetery, school, and church purposes. The cemetery was enlarged in 1907 with the purchase of 1.5 acres from A. T. Baggett. The graveyard remains active and is maintained by a cemetery association. Interred here are numerous area pioneers and their descendants. Pleasant Valley CemeteryEstablished 1874Historic Texas Cemetery - 2000

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

In 1848 the Holland, Boydstun, Lowe, and Ground families made their way from Illinois to this part of North Texas, and when the Boydstuns' young son Henry died that same year he was buried on the family farm. In 1870 the family deeded acreage around his grave for a cemetery, school, and church, and the burial ground grew from there. Still active today, it holds generations of the area's pioneer families.

Why it matters

The cemetery preserves the story of a chain-migration of Midwestern families onto the Texas frontier and the community institutions they built around their dead.

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Related people

  • · Jacob Boydstun
  • · Drusilla Boydstun

Themes & tags

Westward ExpansionFrontier HistoryMemorial

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