City of Fort Worth
The Pioneers Rest Cemetery, which is the final resting place for many city founders like U.S. Army General Edward H. Tarrant, has received a grant that will allow for a couple of much-needed improvements.
Thanks to a $30,000 grant from the Texas Historical Commission, two prominent structures that have been part of the cemetery for centuries are in store for some upgrades. The first of these structures is the cemetery’s entry gate, which consists of two massive granite columns on each side of the lot’s entry. This old structure helps support a pair of 6-by-6 wrought steel gates eerily reminiscent of an old horror movie.
The second structure these grant funds will go to are the ground’s sexton cottage, built circa 1910. This dwelling, which served as the cemetery caretaker’s office, is in dire need of restoration to stabilize the walls from water and vegetation that has contributed to the rapid decline of the abode for years.
The Pioneers Rest Cemetery Association, who initially applied for grant funding in February of last year, was asked to submit a project in July, according to the City’s website. Based off of this submission the Association received the grant award in October for 30K.
The Texas Historical Commission accepted 37 grant applications last year with asks of over a million and a half dollars in grant funding. Last fall, at the commissions quarterly meeting, 16 proposals for grants where approved for a grand total of $892,403.
Pioneers Rest Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2021. It’s use as a burial ground began in the summer of 1850, not long after the fort was established by the U.S. Army.
According to historical data, Pioneers Rest began as a three-acre plot of land donated by a local physician named Adolphe Gouhenant. This patch of land, located on a bluff overlooking the Trinity River, was first used to bury eleven U.S. soldiers who most likely died of cholera mere months after the fort had been established.
In 1909, the cemetery was formally named "Pioneers Rest" and the organization known as the Samuels Avenue Cemetery Association reformed as the Pioneers Rest Cemetery Association.
In 1880, the City purchased the cemetery for a whopping $76. After proposing this hallowed spot become a city park, the park board ultimately elected to return the property to the Pioneers Rest Cemetery Association and provide free water for maintenance of the cemetery.
Notable names and monuments that reside at Pioneers Rest Cemetery include:
- Ripley Allen Arnold (1817–1853) – Founder of Fort Worth and major in the United States Army
- James J. Byrne (1841–1880) – The youngest general in the Union Army during the Civil War
- Ephraim Merrill "Bud" Daggett (1850–1921) – Fort Worth cattleman and father of Mary Daggett Lake
- Ephraim Merrill "Eph" Daggett (1810–1883) – The "Father of Fort Worth" and participant in the Regulator-Moderator War
- Lemuel James Edwards (1805–1869) – Early Peters Colony settler and landowner in present-day southwest Fort Worth and Benbrook
- James Franklin Ellis (1838–1899) – Early Fort Worth settler and luxury hotel owner
- Merida Green Ellis (1847–1932) – One of the founders of the Fort Worth Stockyards
- Gustavus Adolphus Everts (1797–1884) – Judge and Fannin County representative at the Convention of 1845, which approved annexation and drafted a state constitution
- Abraham "Abe" Harris (1824–1915) – Mexican War veteran who helped build the original fort in 1849, Confederate officer, and president of the Texas Association of Mexican War Veterans
- Etta O. Price Newby (1862–1936) – Civic leader who donated the Newby Memorial Building to the Woman's Club of Fort Worth
- Carroll Marion Peak (1828–1885) – Fort Worth's first physician and founder of the First Christian Church
- Baldwin L. Samuel (1803–1879) – Early Fort Worth settler and donor of land for Pioneers Rest
- Anna Shelton (1861–1939) – First president of The Woman's Club of Fort Worth, Member of Mary Isham Keith Chapter, NSDAR
- May Hendricks Swayne (1856–1940) – Founder of the Woman's Wednesday Club, Regent of Mary Isham Keith Chapter, NSDAR and granddaughter of Gustavus Adolphus Everts
- Roger Tandy (1806–1898) – Peters Colony settler and rancher in present-day east Fort Worth
- Edward H. Tarrant (1796–1858) – U.S Army General and Texas State Representative after which Tarrant County is named
- Jesse Shelton Zane-Cetti (1844–1922) – Entrepreneur and one of the founders of the Texas Brewing Company in Hell's Half Acre
- Rev. John Smith Gillespie - (July 1820 - November 1903) - Founding Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church of Fort Worth, Texas
