Western Heights Cemetery Timeline
- 1836 Texas Independence.
- 1841 First European-American settlement in what is now Dallas.
- 1845 Texas annexed by the U. S.
- 1846 Dallas County established.
- 1848 First burial at what would later become Western Heights Cemetery: Augustine Byram.
- 1855 the French colony known as La Réunion founded on the south bank of the Trinity River.
- 1856 City of Dallas incorporated.
- 1881 Land for cemetery purchased for $15. Deed designation as a “graveyard forever” by Z. E. Coombes and W. R. Fisher (It is actually a cemetery, not a graveyard, since it is not next to a church. The planned church wound up being built a few blocks away).
- 1884 Flanders Heights development created to the immediate east of the cemetery.
- 1901 Flanders Heights renamed Mt. Airy.
- 1907 “Cement City” begins. Many workers who fled the Mexican Revolution began working in cement villages.
- 1908 Great Trinity Flood.
- 1908 Mt. Airy area renamed to Western Heights due to the flood. The name differentiates the space from the lower-lying areas of West Dallas that flooded.
- 1920, approx., West Dallas Cemetery became known as Western Heights Cemetery.
- 1922 Anna Struck buys 1/6 acre in the SE corner of Western Heights Cemetery for a family plot. This is still shown as a separate parcel of land by the Dallas Central Appraisal District.
- 1954 West Dallas, including the cemetery, is annexed by Dallas.
- 1988 Historical Marker installed.
- 1992 The Dallas Genealogical Society surveys and transcribes all headstones.
- 2006 Trinity Oaks Church of Christ becomes defunct. Custody of the cemetery is transferred to Rolling Hills Church of Christ in DeSoto.
- 2006 Frances James, “the cemetery lady,” along with the Dallas County Pioneer Association, begin to maintain the cemetery.
- 2008 Fort Worth Avenue Development Group starts doing maintenance at the cemetery with some gaps due to COVID and other periods of organizational inactivity.
- 2022 Fort Worth Avenue Development Group holds first annual fundraiser for the cemetery.
- 2026 newly formed Western Heights Cemetery Association assumes maintenance & care of the cemetery.