Thompson Public Cemetery
Westworth Village, Tarrant County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1870, Captain Henry J. Thompson, Chief Justice of Jack County, Texas Ranger and Fort Worth Mason, allowed his neighbor and Confederate veteran, William Terry Allen, to bury his first wife, Sarah Anne “Fannie” Grant Allen (1849-1870), on his property. This established Thompson Public Cemetery, one-third mile from the Allen log cabin home. Six months later, their son George E. Allen joined her, followed by another son, Willie Allen, in 1884. William T. Allen later was buried in the cemetery in 1893. His late wife’s younger sister who became his second wife, Theodocia “Docia” Earnest Grant (1854-1931), is buried next to him. A third Grant sister buried in the cemetery, Martha Jane Grant (1842-1885), married Confederate veteran John Jay Ingram. Thompson Public Cemetery has also been known by other names, such as Allen, Farmer, Thompson Community Cemetery, Thompson Neighbors’ Cemetery, and Thompson Cemetery. Many pioneer settler families of White Settlement, River Oaks and Westworth Village are buried in the cemetery, including James Ventioner, founder of River Oaks, and his wife, Millie Farmer. They were the first couple married in White Settlement in 1851. Cleo Akins, a child from a wagon train passing through the area, was laid to rest in an undated grave, with pebbles spelling out her name. Dollie Shrewder Smith, a widow of Civil War and Mexican War Veteran Alexander Purnell Smith, is buried in the cemetery along with her son and father. Also buried in the cemetery are the Farmer brothers, Joseph, Elijah, and David, who were the first to build homes in White Settlement. Today this cemetery is a reminder and a reflection of the lives of pioneer settlers and their descendants. Historic Texas Cemetery – 2010
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The cemetery began in 1870 when Captain Henry J. Thompson let his neighbor bury a young wife on his land, near the Allen log cabin. From that first grave it grew into the resting place of the pioneer families who built White Settlement, River Oaks and Westworth Village — among them James Ventioner, founder of River Oaks, and the Farmer brothers, first to raise homes in White Settlement. Confederate veterans, a wagon-train child whose name was spelled in pebbles, and generations of settlers lie together beneath its many names.
Why it matters
This ground gathers the founding families of several Tarrant County communities into one place, a roll call of the pioneers who settled the country west of Fort Worth.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Henry J. Thompson
- · William Terry Allen
- · James Ventioner
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
William Terry Allen Log Cabin
White Settlement, TX
William Terry Allen came to Tarrant County from Kentucky as a boy in 1854, and by 1864 — after serving in the Confederate army — he and his wife had built this small 13-by-18-foot log cabin west of the courthouse. The family enlarged it over the years, even setting aside a "Professor's Room" for the local schoolteacher during the school term. After decades of use, sale, and relocation, the cabin was finally moved to make way for Carswell Air Force Base runways, then numbered log by log and restored to its original size by the White Settlement Historical Society.
Arlington Heights Lodge No. 1184, A.F. and A.M
Fort Worth, TX
Chartered in 1921 on land donated by two of its own members, this Fort Worth Masonic lodge built a temple that a fellow member, architect John C. Davies, designed in the Classical Revival mode. Dedicated in 1923, its pedimented gables, brick pilasters, and round-arched windows gave the fraternity a home with the dignity of a Greek temple. The building has stood as a fixture of the Arlington Heights neighborhood ever since.
Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show
Fort Worth, TX
What began in 1896 as a modest livestock show organized by Fort Worth Stock Yards men and Texas cattle raisers grew, decade by decade, into one of the great institutions of the cattle world. A 1908 coliseum brought horse shows and cutting competitions; by 1918 the renamed Fat Stock Show had added what is often called the first indoor rodeo, along with youth events and society pageantry. After relocating to this site in 1944, it swelled into a multimillion-dollar, weeks-long rodeo and exhibition drawing hundreds of thousands.
1869 Independence Day Raid
Fort Worth, TX
On July 4, 1869, a band of eleven Native raiders gathered horses around Fort Worth and rode northwest, pursued by a posse of Tarrant County men into Parker County. Along the way settlers' homes were raided and two travelers killed before the raiders slipped away on the night of July 5th, abandoning most of the stock. Such raids were a recurring feature of the North Texas frontier from the late 1850s until 1875.