Fuget Cemetery is tucked away in a corner near the airfield control tower of the former Hensley Field in Grand Prairie TX. Vistors must present ID and be admitted to the base by security. There is no longer a requirement for a military escort.
The forgotten Fuget Cemetery on what once was busy Hensley Field and Naval Air Station Dallas sits by the abandoned and falling-apart old control tower next to the fenced-off airstrip at this rapidly declining military installation.
This waymark can only be reached from the south side of the base -- there is no access at all from Jefferson Blvd. From Jefferson, go south on SE 14th Street to Garrett Blvd. Turn left on Garrett, then make an immediate right onto Lakecrest Dr. Head north to the base guard house at N 32 43.770 W 096 58.920.
Wait for the guard. Tell him you are there to visit the cemetery and, after showing ID and signing in, he will wave you on board. Follow Lakecrest to the point where it peters out into a snall parking lot. A small track road branches off to the right that will take you past a lake and eventually to the old control tower. Park at the old abandoned air traffic control tower at N 32 44.083 W 096 58.516. The cemetery is located right behind the tower.
Fuget Cemetery was created in the 1860s on land that was then owned by the Joseph Hewett family. J. H. Snow was the first recorded burial here - he was the husband of Hewitt's daughter Cynthia. No one knows how many graves are here. Many were not marked, while others were marked with markers that have disappeared or weathered away.
Several members of the T. H. Hargis family are buried here, including the waymarked grave of B[enjamin] F[ranklin] Hargis. B. F. Hargis was a member of WoW Camp 1480 in Grand Prairie.
B. F. Hargis died in 1905 at the age of 30. Other than his vital dates and WoW camp membership, we have not been able to find any more information on Hargis or his family.
To us, it looks like B. F. Hargis's tombstone is made of poured concrete, not carved in stone. His tombstone reads as follows:
B. F. Hargis
Son of
T. H. & L. C. Hargis
Born
Oct. 11, 1874
Died
Sept. 24, 1905
Gone but not forgotten
A history of this forgotten cemetery was published (before 1998) on the USGenWeb by Janie Richards: (
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"Dallas Co., TX - Cemeteries - Fuget Cemetery
FUGET (FUGGITT, FUGATT ) CEMETERY
DALLAS NAVAL AIR STATION
DALLAS TEXAS DALLAS COUNTY
The Fuget Cemetery is located on the U S Naval Air Station, close to the shores of Mountain Creek Lake.
. . .
The cemetery was begun before the Civil War as a private family burial plot for Roland Hewett, who owned the land. There were four Hewett children—Irving, Mrs Rebecca Ray, Mrs Josephine Borer and Mrs Cynthia Snow. The first recorded burial date in the cemetery is on the grave of J. H. Snow. The marker dates is death in 1864 at the age of 34. Just how many people are buried in the cemetery, and when the cemetery began nobody really knows . Many of the graves were never marked and many of the markers have faded or crumbled. The last burial in Fuget Cemetery was that of Charles T Hargis on September 29, 1951, ten years after the burial of Bennie B Farrens, Private 165 Depot Brigade.
Three hundred acres of the original Hewett property were purchased in September 1928 by the Dallas City Commission to be used by the U S Army as a military base. The airport cost the City of Dallas Commerce contributed $16,000 for construction of hangers and other mprovements. The Army signed a 20–year lease at $1 per year, and named the base Hensley Field.
In September 1940, the federal government spent $1 million for additional construction at the field, and it became a Naval Air Training Base, turning out 1,200 fliers yearly. It also served as a base for several reserve squadrons.
The cemetery is maintained by Naval Air Station personnel who continue the schedule of upkeep established by a commander of the base, Captain J. E. Savage." [end]
From Wikipedia, comes this brief history of Hensley Field LKA Dallas Naval Air Station: (
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"The City of Dallas established Hensley Field in August 1929 as a training field for reserve pilots. The facility was named for Major William N. Hensley, a flying instructor located near Dallas in the 1920s and one of the few on board the first trans-Atlantic dirigible crossing in 1919.
The city leased the site to the United States Army for a dollar a year. The field became the Air Corps Reserve Base in the Eighth Corps Area. At the beginning of World War II, the Army extended their lease to 40 years. In March 1941, the Navy began maintaining operations at the base and shortly afterward established a naval reserve training base on 160 acres (0.7 km2) adjacent to Hensley Field.
In December 1941 Hensley Field became headquarters of the Midwest Area of the Air Corps Ferrying Command, after Maj. Thomas D. Ferguson, commander of the field, was made control officer for the Middle West Area of the United States.
The installation was closed in 1998 as part of the 1993 Base Realignment and Closure conducted by the Department of Defense, but partially reopened in the early 21st-century to accommodate military training requirements.
The base was later recommissioned as it is today as the Grand Prairie Armed Forces Reserve Complex, with the half that housed the aircraft-related facilities (such as the runway, hangars, etc.) going to the Texas Air National Guard, and the half with the bulk of non-aircraft related facilities going to the Army Reserves and small area to Marine Forces Reserve. Vought Aircraft Industries operates a government-owned, contractor-operated (GOCO) plant adjacent to NAS Dallas."