Trees Cemetery

Catherine Hunsaker Kimmel, the mother of Anna Trees, came to the Republic of Texas in 1845 as a widow from Union County, Illinois, with her children Philip, Anna and Melvira. They traveled by horse and wagon to land bought through W. S. Peters and Associates, the Texas Emigration and Land Company, in the Peters Colony north of the Trees tract. She died on May 11, 1861, and was buried at Anna's home site. When that site was sold in 1973, her tombstone was moved to Trees Cemetery. Her son Philip had been killed on August 21, 1856.

What the plaque says

Trees Cemetery Crawford Trees (1823-1889) came to Texas in 1845. He and fellow Illinois native Anna Kimmel (1831-1913) were married in 1846. Crawford went to California during the Gold Rush in 1849, returning to Texas two years later with enough money to purchase 5,458 acres of land. In 1855, he and Anna, eventually the parents of ten children, donated land for a community school and church. They established this cemetery when Anna's brother, Philip Kimmel, and a friend, William Stiles, were killed in a shooting on August 21, 1856. Primarily a family burial ground, the cemetery also contains the graves of a number of family friends. Maintained by a family association, the cemetery remains in use by Trees descendants. (2001)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

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• Dallas Museum of Art — 13 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.

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