Sowers Cemetery
Irving, Dallas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Burial plot was begun in 1868, when a woman and her daughter, whose names have been lost, were interred on the land of Seveir Smalley, a local landowner. In 1874, Edmund D. Sowers (1826 - 1909) and his wife, Freelove, donated one adjoining acre as a public burial ground. In his family lot, Sowers had an impressive monument erected, using proceeds from sale of 65 acres of his land. Additional property was donated by Otis Brown (1879 - 1958). Many pioneer settlers of this area are buried here. Cemetery is maintained by Sowers Cemetery Association.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This Irving-area burial ground began in 1868 with the graves of a woman and her daughter, now nameless, laid to rest on Seveir Smalley's land. In 1874 Edmund D. Sowers and his wife Freelove donated an adjoining acre as a public cemetery, and Sowers raised an imposing family monument from the sale of his own land. Many of the area's pioneer settlers lie buried here, in a plot still tended by the Sowers Cemetery Association.
Why it matters
The cemetery is a resting place for the pioneer families who first settled the land that became Irving, preserving the human roots of a modern Dallas-area community.
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Related people
- · Edmund D. Sowers
- · Freelove Sowers
- · Otis Brown
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Daniel Webster Gilbert, M. D.
Irving, TX
Mississippi-born Daniel Webster Gilbert came to Texas in 1874 and, after earning his medical degree in Missouri, practiced in the small communities around Dallas County. He farmed 1,500 acres at Sowers—planting a peach orchard and running a dairy—before settling in Irving in 1903 as one of its first physicians and a civic leader. He is buried here among his family.
Sowers Community
Irving, TX
By 1856 Edmund and Freelove Sowers, newcomers from Illinois, had settled this corner of Dallas County, where neighbors farmed, hunted, and cut timber and Ed worked as a blacksmith. His general store, post office, and schoolhouse in the 1870s and '80s drew physicians and families until a small crossroads community — famous for its Fourth of July picnics and ballgames — took shape. Sustained by dairy and poultry, Sowers survived until Irving annexed it in the 1950s, leaving only its cemetery behind.
Site of the Dr. D. W. Gilbert Homestead
Irving, TX
Mississippi-born Daniel Webster Gilbert trained under his physician brother before earning a medical degree in St. Louis and returning to Texas in 1881. From an office on his hilltop homestead he served the scattered communities around what became Irving, later farming with progressive methods, running the Gilbert Dairy, and training pharmacists. When Irving was platted in 1903 he moved his practice into town and helped organize its bank, doctoring there until his death in 1930.
Haley Memorial Cemetery
Irving, TX
William Haley and his wife Lucinda Catherine came to Texas from Missouri in 1857, part of the wave of settlers building farms and small businesses in the young state. When Lucinda died in 1875, the family set aside an acre of their farm as a burial ground, and over the years more of the Haley and related families were laid to rest here. A granddaughter enlarged the plot in 1963, preserving it as a record of the area's founding families.