Swisher Cemetery
Lake Dallas, Denton County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Reflecting the earliest years of Anglo settlement in this part of north central Texas, the Swisher Cemetery began on land granted to H. H. Swisher for his service in the Texas War for Independence from Mexico. The oldest burial in the cemetery, that of Francis Long, dates to 1867. When H. H. Swisher's son, Capt. A. P. Swisher (1829-1920), inherited the property from his father, he formally donated some of his land for use as a cemetery by the families of the community then known as the French Settlement. Swisher's wife, Virginia, died in 1899 and was the first member of the family buried in the Swisher plot. After the railroad came through this area, the community's name was changed to Garza in 1881 and then to Lake Dallas in 1926 upon construction of the dam on the Elm Fork of the Trinity that created the lake by the same name. Swisher Cemetery's use over time has expanded to serve residents of many of the neighboring lake communities. The burial ground contains the graves of numerous veterans who served in the Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the Persian Gulf. Over the years, additional land was purchased for the cemetery, which contains more than 1,100 graves. For many years, Garza community residents took care of the cemetery. From 1948 until 1998, the Lake Dallas Birthday Club maintained the graveyard. The Swisher Cemetery Association currently cares for the historic burial ground. (2001)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The Swisher Cemetery began on land granted to H. H. Swisher for his service in the Texas War for Independence, marking some of the earliest Anglo settlement in this part of north central Texas. His son, Capt. A. P. Swisher, formally donated ground for the burials of the community then called the French Settlement, later renamed Garza and finally Lake Dallas when the dam on the Trinity's Elm Fork created the lake in 1926. Its 1,100-plus graves include veterans from the Civil War through the Persian Gulf, a century and a half of local history.
Why it matters
Rooted in a Texas Revolution land grant, Swisher Cemetery ties the fight for Texas independence to the generations of settlers and soldiers who followed.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Swisher Cemetery reaches back to the earliest years of Anglo settlement in this part of north central Texas, to a time when the region was newly opened and thinly peopled. The ground itself traces to a land grant given to H. H. Swisher for his service in the Texas War for Independence — a reminder that in the young Republic, land was the currency in which a new nation paid its soldiers and drew settlers onto its frontier.
When the first burials took place, this was farm country at the edge of settlement. The community that gathered here was known as the French Settlement, one of those small, self-reliant clusters of families that dotted the north Texas prairies before railroads and towns reshaped the map. Life ran on the rhythms of the land, and neighbors depended on one another in life and in death.
The decades that followed would transform the place several times over. The arrival of the railroad, the naming and renaming of the community, and eventually the great engineering projects of the twentieth century all left their mark — and through all of it, the cemetery remained a fixed point, gathering the generations as the world around it changed.
People & events
The land was granted to H. H. Swisher for his part in the fight for Texas independence, but the cemetery's formal life owed much to his son, Capt. A. P. Swisher, who lived from 1829 to 1920 and inherited the property. When he set aside some of that inherited land specifically for community burials, he turned a family holding into a shared resource for the neighbors of the French Settlement.
The oldest burial recorded here, that of Francis Long, dates to 1867 — a marker of just how early this ground came into use. The first of the Swisher family laid to rest in the family plot was A. P. Swisher's wife, Virginia, who died in 1899. In these dates you can watch a single family's story braid together with the story of an entire community's dead.
The place-names shifted around the cemetery even as it endured. After the railroad came through, the community was renamed Garza in 1881, and then Lake Dallas in 1926, when a dam on the Elm Fork of the Trinity River created the lake that gave the town its name. Care of the grounds passed through many hands over the years — from Garza residents, to the Lake Dallas Birthday Club that tended it from 1948 to 1998, and now to the Swisher Cemetery Association. Among its more than 1,100 graves lie veterans of the Civil War, both World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, and the Persian Gulf — a span of American service reaching across a century and a half.
Its place in the American story
The origin of this cemetery in a Texas Revolution land grant ties a quiet country graveyard directly to one of the defining episodes of American expansion. The independence of Texas and its eventual entry into the Union reshaped the map of the continent, and the practice of rewarding soldiers with land is how that vast territory was parceled out to the people who would settle it. This ground is a small, tangible piece of that enormous transaction.
The cemetery also records the way rural America was made and remade by infrastructure. A railroad renamed the community once; a dam renamed it again and drowned part of the old landscape beneath a new lake. The same story played out across the country in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as rails and reservoirs decided which places grew, which vanished, and what they would be called.
Perhaps most striking is the unbroken line of military service among the graves. From the Civil War through the Persian Gulf, the veterans buried here connect one small Texas community to every major chapter of the nation's armed history. Read together, their stones are a local chronicle of how ordinary American families answered the call in war after war.
If you visit
As you walk Swisher Cemetery, look for the oldest stones — the 1867 burial and the late-nineteenth-century Swisher family graves — and let them anchor you in just how early settlement came to this land. From there, the dates fan outward across more than a century, and you can feel the community growing around you as you move through the rows.
Seek out the veterans' graves in particular. Finding markers from the Civil War near others from the World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, and the Persian Gulf is a quietly moving experience — a whole national history of service gathered into a single peaceful field. It rewards slow, attentive walking.
Set among the lake communities that now surround it, the cemetery makes a thoughtful stop for anyone exploring the Lake Dallas area and curious about what was here before the water. Come with respect for a place still lovingly maintained, and let its layered names — French Settlement, Garza, Lake Dallas — remind you how much can change around a piece of ground that itself stays constant.
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
- · H. H. Swisher
- · Capt. A. P. Swisher
Related events
- · Texas Revolution
Themes & tags
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