Merrell Cemetery

The ground changed hands in 1890. The Dallas County Pioneer Association says the Connell, Luna, Merrell and Strait families paid $35 for a one-acre site from Mrs. Aaron Lanham, although Eli Merrell had been buried here in 1849. The cemetery has no church affiliation, and families kept up their own plots. A stone for Thomas Merrell reads that he was murdered in El Paso on December 24, 1884; he lies with his wife, who was killed with him. Enoch Strait served in Company K of the Nineteenth Texas Cavalry.

What the plaque says

Merrell Cemetery Elder Eli Merrell (1787 - 1849), minister of the Disciples of Christ Church, came with his wife, Mary, in 1844, to settle 640 acres near Bachman's Branch in what was then Nacogdoches County. This cemetery is on a part of his acreage, and his was the first marked grave at this site. The Merrell Cemetery originally served pioneers from the surrounding area. Numerous prominent citizens and members of the historic Peters Colony are among those buried here. William Strait (1806-86) and his wife, Mourning (1806-77), came to Dallas County in 1853. Many of their family members remained in the area, serving the community in various positions. Strait's sons, William, Enoch, and Bennett, served with Merrell's sons, George and John, in the 19th Cavalry during the Civil War. Enoch Strait (1834 - 1917) served as Dallas County Commissioner and William Strait's grandson, Elmo (1876 - 1922), became the Chief of Police for the city of Dallas. Members of the cemetery association, which was organized in 1965, include many descendants of pioneer settlers. (1985)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Dallas Museum of Art — 7.4 mi
  A city art museum that began as the Dallas Art Association in 1903, grew up in Fair Park, and has stood in the Arts District since 1984 under a forty-foot barrel vault.
• The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza — 7.7 mi
  A plow-company warehouse of 1903, identified by the Warren Commission as the building Oswald fired from, now a museum on its sixth and seventh floors above Dealey Plaza.
• Dallas Heritage Village at Old City Park — 8.5 mi
  Dallas's first city park, laid out around Browder's Spring in 1876, now a museum of historic buildings moved here from across North Texas, among them Millermore, a cotton planter's mansion.
• African American Museum, Dallas — 8.8 mi
  Founded in 1974 at Bishop College, a free Fair Park museum holding the Sepia photograph archive, African art and A. Maceo Smith's papers, and the story of the Hall of Negro Life.

More markers nearby

• Ursuline Academy — 1.4 mi
• Hockaday School — 1.6 mi
• Garvin Memorial Cemetery — 1.7 mi
• Cochran Chapel Methodist Church — 1.8 mi