Trinity Portland Cement Company Cemetery
Dallas, Dallas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
El Camposanto de Cemento Grande De La Compania Trinity Portland The Southwestern States Portland Cement Company was established in this area in 1909. Many of the company's employees were Mexican immigrants who came to this area to escape the Mexican Revolution. The company name was changed after Trinity Portland Cement Company purchased the business in 1915. Two company villages were built near the cement plant, one for Anglos and one for Mexican laborers. About 1918, the company donated land for use as a community cemetery by its Hispanic employees. It is believed that the first people buried in the cemetery were victims of the 1918 influenza epidemic, including many children. A number of cement company workers and their family members were interred here, and the cemetery was cared for by residents of the company town. The last burial occurred when Eladio R. Martinez (1921 - 1945) was reinterred here. A native of the village, he was killed in action in the Pacific during World War II, and was originally buried in the Philippines. Although the company housing was removed from this area by 1959, this cemetery remains as a reminder of the village which once occupied this area, sometimes referred to as Eagle Ford, Texas.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This cemetery is the last trace of a company town at Eagle Ford, west of Dallas, where a cement plant opened in 1909 and drew many Mexican immigrants fleeing the upheaval of the Mexican Revolution. The company built segregated villages—one for Anglos, one for Mexican laborers—and around 1918 donated land for a cemetery for its Hispanic workers, whose earliest burials are believed to have been victims of the 1918 influenza epidemic, many of them children. The houses were gone by 1959, but the graves remain.
Why it matters
It preserves the memory of the immigrant labor that powered Texas industry and the segregated world those workers were made to live and be buried in.
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Related people
- · Eladio R. Martinez
Related events
- · Mexican Revolution
- · 1918 influenza epidemic
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Eagle Ford Community
Dallas, TX
Eagle Ford took root beside an important crossing of the Trinity River's west fork, where settlers like the Hortons arrived in 1844 and built farms, a grist mill, and a cemetery. Railroad and depot land donated by James Horton spurred the village until the line pushed on to Fort Worth and the town began to fade. A new chapter opened in 1907 when Michigan investors founded a Portland cement company here, drawing Mexican immigrant workers whose descendants — among them decorated World War II soldier Eladio Martinez — enriched the community's culture.
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This cemetery is all that remains of the community that lived and labored on the Dallas County Trinity Farms, a 3,000-acre commercial operation — also called Rancho Grande — that ran from about 1915 to 1946. The farm provided housing, schools, and a commissary for its workers, who were largely Mexican citizens, many fleeing the Mexican Revolution, and a sizable number of African Americans. In keeping with the era's segregation, the children attended separate schools and the dead were buried in separate sections.
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