{"id":384029,"date":"2025-11-17T00:03:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T00:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/384029\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T00:03:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T00:03:16","slug":"volunteers-lead-revitalization-of-fort-worths-oldest-cemetery-as-historic-site-turns-175","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/384029\/","title":{"rendered":"Volunteers lead revitalization of Fort Worth\u2019s oldest cemetery as historic site turns 175"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sam Cantey IV, 84, remembers visiting the Pioneers Rest Cemetery for the first time while on a sixth grade field trip and feeling an instant pull to the historic place.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The cemetery stands as Fort Worth\u2019s oldest burial ground, containing the graves of the city\u2019s founders and some early settlers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cantey and his classmates spent most of the visit running across the cemetery looking through the gravestones, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of my classmates said \u2018Stop, stop you\u2019re walking on my ancestors,\u2019\u201d he recalled with a chuckle.<\/p>\n

That memory stuck with Cantey for over seven decades and serves as a foundation for why he\u2019s found his way back to Pioneers Rest as one of several volunteers leading revitalization efforts at the 175-year-old cemetery.<\/p>\n

For Melanie Smith, president of the cemetery\u2019s association, it\u2019s important to keep the historic place alive as Fort Worth continues to grow, especially after the city\u2019s population surpassed 1 million residents<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to look back where we came from to know where we\u2019re going,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Reminder of city\u2019s past<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"Upon entering Pioneers Rest Cemetery, guests walk down a gravel road leading to The Sexton\u2019s Cottage at the end of the property. The tool house was constructed in the early 1920s. (David Moreno | Fort Worth Report)<\/p>\n

Pioneers Rest is nearly as old as the military outpost of Fort Worth itself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 1850, Dr. Fran\u00e7ois Ignace Gouhenant donated about 3 acres of land to Maj. Ripley Allen Arnold \u2014 the city\u2019s founder \u2014 as a burial site for his two deceased children, Sophie and Willis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Eleven soldiers from the Fort were also buried at the site around the same time, according to a Texas Historical Commission marker inside the cemetery\u2019s main gates.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As the city grew, the cemetery became the final resting place for many of its early settlers, including Arnold and the county\u2019s namesake Gen. Edward H. Tarrant, who was a former commander of troops at Fort Worth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The cemetery gained another roughly 3 acres in 1871.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pioneers Rest now encompasses approximately 7 acres, which are bounded by a set of railroad tracks toward the back of the burial grounds and apartment buildings and townhomes near its entrance on Samuels Avenue. Interments at this site are no longer frequent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Melanie Smith, president of the Pioneers Rest Cemetery Association, leads a tour of the site\u2019s best-known headstones on Oct. 14, 2025. She pauses at the grave of Robert Doan Bartley, who died in 1849 at the age of 37. (David Moreno | Fort Worth Report)<\/p>\n

In early 2021, some burial descendants noticed the neglected grounds had become overwhelmed with tall grass, overgrown trees and deteriorating infrastructure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Smith stepped up to lead the Pioneers Rest Cemetery Association with a mission of making it a prime destination for North Texas community members and anyone interested in learning about early settlers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere had been members who really thought the best thing for the cemetery was to fly under the radar and not bring any attention, but there were several of us who were able to come in and change that,\u201d said Smith, who has several relatives buried on the site.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One volunteer, Teresa Wilson, oversees efforts to digitize the cemetery\u2019s records. Others, like Todd and Marcia Norris, live in a townhome across the street and serve as the site\u2019s guardians to ensure no one vandalizes the property.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Members of the Pioneers Rest Cemetery Association pose by the main entrance of the city\u2019s oldest cemetery on Oct. 14, 2025. Left to right: Teresa Wilson, Marcia Norris, Todd Norris, Melanie Smith, Cecelia Rollins Van Donselaar and Edmund \u201cPen\u201d Cranz. (David Moreno | Fort Worth Report)<\/p>\n

By August 2023, the group began placing QR codes next to certain graves<\/a> in Pioneers Rest to provide visitors with biographies and photographs of the people buried there. The project was supported by a $2,000 grant from the Tarrant County Historical Society.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes a cemetery a much more human place,\u201d archivist and volunteer Shelley Gayler-Smith previously said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just some spooky place that you should never go into. It\u2019s a place that is very human.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The following year, Fort Worth council members approved a $50,000 contribution<\/a> to the group as part of a $153,000 project to restore the cemetery\u2019s front gate and preserve The Sexton\u2019s Cottage built around 1920.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, the Pioneers Rest Cemetery Association knows there is more work to be done to return the site to its former glory.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Restoring more of the site<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"Some headstones at Pioneers Rest Cemetery have either chipped or broken over the years. (David Moreno | Fort Worth Report)<\/p>\n

The association is in the midst of fundraising to replace several broken headstones and repair broken fencing throughout the burial grounds. Restoring those can be a challenge as some families step away from financially supporting the gravestone of a relative they don\u2019t know, said Smith.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have third great-grandparents that are so far removed in generations that families have quit telling their children about tending the graves,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to get those families to feel compelled to donate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Volunteers also hope to secure funds to complete a full ground penetrating radar survey to help them fill in the blanks in their records. A survey of the entire 7 acres would be around $8,000, said Smith.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some burial sites may extend beyond the site\u2019s current borders with other unmarked graves yet to be discovered, said cemetery volunteer Cecelia Rollins Van Donselaar.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no telling what all we would find,\u201d she said. \u201cIt would give us a more accurate picture of other artifacts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interested in donating to the Pioneers Rest Cemetery Association?<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

You can support revitalization efforts through the following methods:<\/p>\n