Smith Cemetery Arch -- Lewisville TX - Freestanding Arches on Waymarking.com

The handsome memorial gateway arch is the first clue that you are on the right road to Smith Cemetery, which is accessible through a parking lot of a fabrication business.

Peaceful Smith Cemetery was established in 1862 on the Smith family farm when their son James passed away. It was later deeded to the Masonic Temple for use as a cemetery. In 2018 it is still active. Descendants of the Lewisville pioneer families are still able to be buried here.

The day Blasterz visited, we saw about 100 headstones, but there are hundreds more unmarked graves here, some of which may belong to slaves.

The state historic marker at the cemetery reads as follows:

"SMITH CEMETERY

This area of Denton County was known as Holford's Prairie in the mid-19th century, named for brothers John and James Halford (Holford), pioneer settlers who obtained 640 acres of land as members of the Peters Colony. Basdeal W. Lewis platted the town of Lewisville in 1853.

Thomas Morgan (1814-1887) and Elizabeth A. (1815-1883) Smith purchased 318 acres of land here in 1859. They sold two and one-half acres of their farmland to the Lewisville Masonic Lodge in 1881 for the establishment of a community cemetery. The site had been used as a burial ground since 1862, when the Smiths' 20-year-old son, James J. Smith, died and was buried on the family farm. His is the earliest marked grave in the Smith Cemetery.

Among the pioneer Denton County family names that can be seen on gravestones here are Herod, Sherrill, Clayton, Skillern, Cobb, Jenkins, Temple, Bourland, Hamilton, Fenlaw, Oliver and Fox. John Moore (1834-1922) and Ann Eliza (1849-1923) Fox had the sad task of burying six children here between 1863 and 1882, a testament to the often harsh conditions of pioneer life. Local oral history records suggest that some of the unmarked graves in the Smith Cemetery are those of former slaves of the Julius Kane Fox family.

The Smith Cemetery Association, organized in 1950 to maintain the historic graveyard, purchased the site from the Masonic Lodge in 1972. Currently containing more than 400 marked graves and an unknown number of unmarked ones, the cemetery remains in use by the community and by descendants of the pioneer families interred here. (2001)"

Type: Gateway Subtype: Other Location: Smith Cemetery

Visit Instructions:
To help give a different perspective and to better this waymark listing for future visitors please tell us about your visit and upload a favorite photograph you took of the arch. Although visiting this waymark in person is the only thing required of you to receive credit for your visit, taking the time to add this information is greatly appreciated.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log User Rating   03/12/2018 Benchmark Blasterz visited it