Title of Marker (subject to revision by THC staff) RYLIE CEMETERY
Marker Location (street address and town, or specific directions from ?? nearest town on state highway map- ON CEMETERY PROPERTY - South Side Entrance Rylie ROAD, DALLAS) (SOUTHEAST OF HIGHWAY THE SIDE ENTRANCE 175 AND HAYMARKET ROAD)
Distance and direction subject from marker site If not on post, type of surface to which marker will be attached (wood,
stone, etc.)
Owner of Address Marker Site - DALLAS COUNTY (MAINTAINED BY RYLIE CEMETERY ASSOCIATION) 9642 RYLIE ROAD
City, Zip DALLAS, TX 75217
Sponsor of Address Marker -RYLIE CEMETERY ASSOCIATION 9642 RYLIE ROAD DALLAS 75217/ RHONDA L. MORRIS MESQUITE, TX 75149
Signature of County Chairman
Address
City, Zip
Person to whom marker is to be shipped - RHONDA L. MORRIS Address MESQUITE, TX
; Rylie Cemetery is situated about 12 miles southeast from the Dallas County courthouse in what used to be known as Rylie Prairie. The cemetery is bounded by Rylie Road, Tufts Road, Mulberry and the Rylie Christian Church. It is the burial ground for several pioneer families of Rylie Prairie and Southeast Dallas County including the descendants of James R. Rylie. Several graves are unidentified and some are marked with simple Bois d'Arc headstones.
; On July 20, 1878, a plot measuring "70 yards square" was donated to the County of Dallas by John Armstrong Rylie (b. Nov. 1830) for the purpose of a "free" school.1 The settlers erected a one room log school house on one corner of the plot. Over the years, the log school became too small to accommodate the students and was replaced with a larger six room wooden school. At one time, this school building was used by the Rylie Christian Church for services.2; The wooden school was also outgrown and yet another new school would be built in another part of town. The old wooden school was purchased by Bunk Sewell, moved, and used as a general store. The burial of Redden Allumbaugh would mark the beginning of the school property being used as a "free" cemetery.
;Redden Allumbaugh (d. 19-Apr-1889) came to Dallas County from Fulton County, Illinois. He had just recovered from the measles when he was caught in a rain storm and complications set in.3 He died soon afterwards and was buried on the corner of the school grounds. His grave is marked with a simple stone marker as R. Allumbaugh.
John Rylie came to Dallas County with his father and mother, James R. and Mary Snow Rylie. His three sisters, Sarah, Nancy and Louisa also came. The family migrated from Illinois to Texas before July 1, 1848.4 Dallas County tax rolls list James as having paid Poll and County tax as early as 1846, the earliest records available.
; When they arrived in Texas, they first lived in the city of Dallas with James earning money as a blacksmith. He died after a two week illness of an inflamed spleen in October of 1849.5 Mary moved from the city with her children to the community of Scyene. She was issued a Peters Colony Nacogdoches 3rd Class certificate which was filed May 16, 1853 for 640 acres, the amount issued for a widow with dependents.6 On January 28, 1862, "for and in consideration of [her) love and affection", Mary deeded her 320 acre interest in the patent to her son John who she was living with at the time.7 She died before 1870 and it is not known where she is buried.
The Rylie Cemetery Association, founded in 1962, maintains the cemetery grounds through private donations, mostly from family descendants. The cemetery, which is in excellent condition, is protected by a chain-link fence and is adorned with a United States flag. Both were made possible by contributions from the associaticn. As a free cemetery, anyone may be buried mere, however, very few spaces remain. Some of these spaces have been set aside by family descendants of the original pioneers.
Rylie Prairie was named after James R. Rylie and the survey his wife Mary patented. James Rylie was born in North Carolina circa 1801. He moved to Tennessee and married Mary Snow in williamson county on July 15, 1828.9 Their first child, Sarah, was born there in 1829. Two years later they moved on to Illinois where their other children, John Armstrong, Nancy, and Louisa would be born. The family migrated to Texas in the early 1840s.
At one time Rylie Prairie was a thriving community with a school, 2 churches, a postoffice, a grist mill, a cotton gin, and several general stores. The churches, Rylie Christian Church and Rylie First Baptist Church, are still located in the area serving the needs of their congregations. It is said the Texas Trunk Railroad platted the town of Rylie Prairie. Hartwell B. Cox, railroad agent, postmaster, and civil war veteran, is credited with naming the streets.10 Only two of the names remain today, Ellenwood and Mulberry Street.
The cemetery reminds people that Rylie Prairie was once a thriving town of its own in Southeast Dallas County.It tells the story of the early struggle that pioneers faced when settling a
new area.
A historical marker placed at the cemetery would.hcncr the pioneers who worked hard to make a home in Texas.
1 Dallas County Deed Records, Vol. 71, p. 158.
2 Blanche Impey, Ethel Deane Duke and Edna Herd, History.of Rvlie Christian Church. 1884-1984. Rylie Christian Church, p. 5.
3 Atkinson, June 1991.
4 John Henry Brown, History of Dallas County. Texas from 1837 t:o 1887, Milligan, Cornett and Farnham, 1887, p. 91.
5 Ronald Vern Jackson, Ed. , Mortality Schedule. Texas 1850, Accelerated Indexing Systems, 1979, p. 20.
1850 Mortality Schedule, Microfilm Roll #54, p. 77.
6 Seymour V. Conner, The Peters Colony of Texas. Texas State Historical Association, 1959, p. 384.
Certificate #158, Texas General Land Office.
7 Dallas County Deed Records, Vol. I, p. 94.
8 Diary of Hartwell Bolin Cox, provided by Helen Thompson Sullivan, great granddaughter.
9 Byron and Barbara Sistler, Early Middle Tennessee Marriages. Byron Sistler & Association, 1988, Vol. I, Grooms, p. 475.
10 Atkinson, Julv 1991
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bennett, James D., Searching back into the Past... U.S. Post Offices in 1890. J.D. Bennett, 1973.
Brown, John Henry, History of Dallas County, Texas from 1837 to 1887. Milligan, Cornett and Farnham, 1887»
Carlisle, Mrs. George F., Dallas County Land Surveys, 1954.-
Conner, Seymour V., The Peters Colony of Texas. Texas State Historical Association, 1959.
Curtis, Jimmie Crouch, The Suburban Tribune. July 21, 1989.
Dallas Genealogy Society, Marriages, Dallas County, Texas, Book A-E, (1846-1877). Vol. I, 1978.
???, Marriages. Dallas County, Texas, Books F. G, H, (1877-1885). Vol. II, 1986.
Dunsmore, Pamela, The Suburban Tribune.
Impey, Blanch, Ethel Deane Duke and Edna Herd, History of Rylie Christian Church, 1884 - 1934, Rylie christian Church.
Jackson, Ronald Vern, Mortality Schedule, Texas 1850, Accelerated Indexing Systems, 1979.
Reed, S.G. A History or the Texas Railroads, 1981.
Schibel, Walter J.E., Ed. D. , Education in Dallas, Ninety-two Yaars of History, 1874-1966, 1966.
Sloan, Bill, Dallas Times Herald, September 19, 1965.
The Texas State Historical Association, The Handbook of Texas. 1952.
Atkinscn, Gladys Allumbaugh, Personal Interview, June 1991.
???, July 1991.
Agricultural Census 1870, 1880.
Dallas County Census Records for 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 190O, and 1910.
Dallas Daily Herald. November 13, 1884.
Dallas Public Library, Election Registers, Microfilm Roll , Elected and Appointed State and County Officers. 1907-1908. 1910 1912.
Dallas Weekly Herald, November 13, 1884.
Texas State Gazetteer and Business Directory 1914- 1915, R.L. Polk & Co.
?, 1884-1885
-, 1890-1891
Texas Trunk Railroad Company, Prospectus of the Texas Trunk, (1880) .
RYLIE CEMETERY Early Burials
Ruby Cory
Katie Freeman LaRue
Pearl J. Cory
J.M. Taylor
La11a Putman
Nancy Cory
Ida May Shepherd
Jack Love
Della Williams
John W. Rylie
George W. Davison
Mabel Sewell
J.M. Davison
Gene Cory
Alma P. Moore
G.A. Middleton
Richard Hull
Fred C. Cade
Odeta Rylie
D.H. Harwood
Charlie W. Neuroth
Jessie Hewell Rhodes
T.W. Walker
S.L. Goodman
Augustus C. Henderson Bettie McAdams
Louvenia Middleton
Hattie Cory
Known Civil War Veterans Hartwell Bolin Cox Jan 22, 1840 Jan 28, 1918