Western Heights Cemetery

Western Heights Cemetery is a historic cemetery located in Dallas, Texas. Established in the 19th century, it is among the city’s early burial grounds and reflects Dallas’s development during its formative growth.

The cemetery contains graves of early settlers, immigrants, and individuals connected to local and regional historical events. Its burials provide insight into the social and cultural history of Dallas during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Western Heights Cemetery remains a historical site and continues to be the focus of preservation and documentation efforts aimed at protecting its remaining grave markers and records.

Western Heights Cemetery is located in the Western Heights area of the neighborhood of West Dallas.

Unlike most of West Dallas, which lies in the Trinity River floodplain, the cemetery is elevated by the Austin Chalk limestone formation overlooking the Trinity River and downtown Dallas.^[2][3]

The cemetery lies within the Texas Blackland Prairies ecoregion.^[4]

Western Heights Cemetery was established in the 19th century in Dallas, Texas, and served as a burial ground for residents of the surrounding area.^[5] The cemetery reflects burial practices and neighborhood development patterns common in Dallas during the city’s late 19th- and early 20th-century growth.^[6]

1848 First burial at what would later become Western Heights Cemetery: Augustine Byram^[7][8]

1881 Land for cemetery purchased for $15. Deed designation as a "graveyard forever" by early settlers Z. E. Coombes and W. R. Fisher^[9][10]

1908 During the Trinity River flood, the surrounding area was affected by widespread flooding in Dallas.^[11]

1922 Anna Struck buys 1/6 acre in the southeast corner of Western Heights Cemetery along Neal Street for a family plot. Although adjoining Struck Cemetery is legally separate from Western Heights Cemetery.^[12][13]

1954 West Dallas, including cemetery, annexed by Dallas^[14]

1988 Texas State Historical Marker installed^[15][16]

1992 Dallas Genealogical Society surveys and transcribes headstones^[17][18]

2006 Trinity Oaks Church of Christ defunct. Custody transferred to Rolling Heights Church of Christ in DeSoto. Frances James, Dallas's "cemetery lady" maintains the cemetery along with the Dallas County Pioneer Association.^[19][20]

2008 Fort Worth Avenue Development Group assumes maintenance of the cemetery with some gaps due to COVID and other periods of organizational inactivity.^[21][22]

2023 Selected as pilot cemetery for Constellation of Living Memorials habitat program^[23][24]

2024 $15,000 grant from Summerlee Foundation administered by Constellation of Living Memorials provided for cleaning of stone markers throughout the cemetery, several stone marker repairs and preliminary research for Landmark Status application^[25][26]

2026 newly formed Western Heights Cemetery Association assumes maintenance of the cemetery.^[27][28]

The cemetery has been recognized by the Texas Historical Commission and documented in the Texas Historic Sites Atlas as a historic burial ground in Dallas.^[29]

All headstones at Western Heights Cemetery have been photographed, mapped, GPS located, and transcribed into a comprehensive database.^[30]

Extensive genealogical work has established how many of the represented families are related to each other, and online resources have been created to help descendants and other researchers.^[31]

Preservation-focused programming has included the cemetery in educational and heritage events such as the annual Preservation Dallas cemetery tour.^[32]

Veterans are honored three times a year in grave flag placement ceremonies while historic storytellers recount the veterans’ biographies.^[33]

• Capt. Zachariah Ellis Coombes (1833–1895), lawyer, Confederate Army officer, county judge of Dallas County, alderman, and member of the Texas House of Representatives.^[34]

• Ida Mae Murphy (September 1, 1858 – February 25, 1940), with her husband James Andrew (JA) Murphy (December 8, 1858 – January 7, 1912). She is noted in cemetery records for sheltering more than 30 people during the Great Trinity River Flood of 1908.^[35]

• John Loupot (1836–1904) and his wife Rosina Loupot (1850–1919), settlers of the La Réunion colony near Dallas.^[36]

• Clyde Barrow (1909–1934), American outlaw best known as one half of the Depression-era crime duo Bonnie and Clyde.^[37]

• Marvin Buck Barrow (1905–1933), member of the Barrow Gang and older brother of Clyde Barrow.^[38]

The cemetery contains the documented graves of 30 military veterans, including 18 individuals who served in the American Civil War.^[39]

• Western Heights Cemetery website
• Constellation of Living Memorials – National preservation program focused on historic cemeteries and memorial landscapes
• Dallas Pioneer Cemetery Preservation Society – Dallas-based nonprofit involved in historic cemetery preservation