Swisher Cemetery

Garza's name is a puzzle. The Handbook of Texas says the community was first the French Settlement, after a family named French, and took the name Garza in 1881 for reasons in dispute; one possibility is the chief of a crew that laid track for the Dallas and Wichita Railway. After the lake was impounded the town became Lake Dallas, in 1926 or 1929 depending on the account. Incorporation took a nine-year legal struggle among residents, ending in 1965, and the Garza-Little Elm Reservoir, now Lewisville Lake, later covered the original lake.

What the plaque says

Swisher Cemetery 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)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Denton County Courthouse-on-the-Square — 8.1 mi
  An 1896 courthouse by W. C. Dodson in Denton limestone, pink granite and two sandstones, restored in 2004, now a free county museum on a lawn holding the grave of John B. Denton.
• Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary — 24 mi
  A 289-acre sanctuary in McKinney that Bessie Heard founded at the age of 80, with five habitats, a 50-acre wetland and 6.5 miles of trails.
• Dallas Museum of Art — 27 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 — 28 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.

More markers nearby

• 1848 Denton County Seat — 3.0 mi
• Chinn's Chapel Methodist Church — 4.9 mi
• Lewisville Prehistoric Site — 5.1 mi
• Community of Little Elm — 6.0 mi