Smith-Frazier Cemetery
Azle, Tarrant County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Fort Worth businessman and philanthropist J.J. Jarvis bought land here in 1871 and built a home on the property in the early 1880s. A benefactor to the area's black institutions, he deeded this site to Charles Young and Allen Prince in 1886 as a burial ground for Azle's black community. Several graves were already located here when the land was conveyed. The site was later inherited by descendants of the pioneer Smith and Frazier families. Still in use, the Smith-Frazier Cemetery serves as a reminder of the area's early settlers.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1886, Fort Worth businessman and philanthropist J. J. Jarvis — a benefactor of the area's Black institutions — deeded this ground to Charles Young and Allen Prince as a burial place for Azle's Black community, though several graves already lay here. Over time it passed to descendants of the pioneer Smith and Frazier families and still serves as an active cemetery. This quiet plot preserves the memory of African American settlers on the Tarrant County frontier.
Why it matters
The cemetery is a rare surviving record of a Reconstruction-era Black community in rural North Texas, ground where free people buried their own when few other places would.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · J. J. Jarvis
- · Charles Young
- · Allen Prince
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Hoggard-Reynolds Cemetery
Azle, TX
In the hard years after the Civil War, a Confederate widow named Sarah Hoggard set aside part of her North Texas farm to bury a Black child who had died passing through with his family — an act of grace that seeded a burial ground. Over the following decades the Hoggard and Reynolds families, joined by marriage and rooted in the area's first cotton gin and grist mill, filled the plot with the graves of Parker County's pioneers. Formally deeded in 1899 and renamed in 1984, the cemetery reads today as a chronicle of frontier settlement.
Lawson Daniel Gratz
Willow Park, TX
Born into slavery in 1839 on a Kentucky plantation, Lawson Daniel Gratz enlisted in the Federal army in 1864 and rose to first sergeant in the 114th U.S. Colored Infantry, serving at the sieges of Petersburg and Richmond and standing at Appomattox when Lee surrendered. He later reenlisted with the 10th U.S. Cavalry — the Buffalo Soldiers — and kept serving even after an explosion cost him the sight in one eye. Settling at last in Parker County, he raised fourteen children and was remembered for his leadership and unbending devotion to duty.
Oakwood Cemetery
Fort Worth, TX
Fort Worth pioneer John Peter Smith — later a mayor, civic leader, and philanthropist — founded this cemetery in 1879 with a gift of 20 acres, since grown to 100. Bringing together the Oakwood, Calvary, and Trinity grounds, it holds many of the city's and county's notable dead, with plots held by lodges, unions, and churches, and separate tracts for Union and Confederate soldiers. Its chapel dates to 1914.
Hagar Tucker
Fort Worth, TX
Born into slavery in Kentucky in 1842 and emancipated in 1865, Hagar Tucker became Fort Worth's first African American policeman when he was appointed a "special policeman" in 1873. He was among the first Black residents of the county to register to vote, yet the era's limits were stark: paid separately from white officers, he could patrol only Black neighborhoods and served only a short time. He later worked other jobs and lived with his wife Amy and their three daughters.