Grave Concerns and Ghost Stories at a Forgotten Cemetery Filled With Early Dallas Settlers

Behind the chain-link fence, beneath the overgrown weeds and shattered tree limbs, lies an unremembered, disregarded piece of Dallas' history. The far-faded sign barely affixed to the fencing explains everything and nothing: "Mooneyham Sparkman Cemetery." It serves as the final resting spot for some of this city's earliest settlers, among them Tennessee colonists and Confederate soldiers beckoned by Englishman William Peters' promise of a fresh start south of the Red River. Historians say they arrived here, site of the long-ago Peters Colony, in the 1840s, around the time John Neely Bryan settled on the banks of the Trinity River. Locals who like to tell ghost stories say a few of them never left.This double-padlocked patch of land, this thicket no larger than 60 feet by 60 feet, looks as it might have then — untamed, untouched. Tall, ornate headstones are obscured beneath fallen trees; shorter grave markers are almost impossible to find at all. It's not supposed to be this way.  Continue reading...