First Interment in the Kaufman City Cemetery

In the early 1840's several illustrious men were sent to survey what is now Kaufman County.  Among these men were Robert A Terrell, the man Terrell Texas is named for; John H Reagan - State Congressman and Postmaster General of the Confederate States Army, Warren Angus Ferris - Dallas County pioneer; and others whose contributions to surveying the vast area were just as important, yet we know little about them.

    On July 17^th, 1841, some of the men of a surveying expedition were attacked by Indians at King's Fort.  The story of the Indian attack was described to the editor of the Red Lander on Aug. 3, 1841 thus:

The fort is composed of four log cabins, picketed round, enclosing about three fourths of an acre, in a poor condition of defense.  At 5 o'clock when the men were lying down, the alarm of Indians was heard.  We ran for our guns, and on sallying out saw about 25 Indians coming from adjoining wood.  They raised the war-whoop, and swept by close to the Fort, on full gallop, driving all our horses with them.  We exchanged a few shouts, and killed one of their horses, and wounded some of them.  After reconnoitering and making a grand display, they left us in possession of three of their mules, a quiver of arrows, a Comanche saddle, and some skins.  They were well mounted, and had the appearance of Comanches or Ionies."

   In assistance to the surveying party, troops under the command of Gen. James Smith arrived at the fort on the 18^th and 19^th of July.  While encamped there a disagreement evolved and one of the men, named McIver, was killed by another named James Burrus.  John H Reagan supervised the burial of McIver and buried the man on land which is now part of the Kaufman City Cemetery.

   Many years later, in 1890, Reagan returned to Kaufman and sought the assistance of Judge J E Dillard & George Ezell, a man who was with the surveyors in 1841, to locate the unmarked grave of McIver so he could place a marker on it.  Their efforts went unrewarded, as they could not recognize the burial site because the area had changed drastically in nearly fifty years.  All assumed the burial site was lost forever.

   However, in January 1894 the remains of a man were discovered while a grave was being dug for a child and it is believed those remains were McIver's.  The following newspaper article details the story of how what is believed to be McIver's grave was discovered:

Terrell Times Star  Mar 02, 1894

   "While digging little Lucian Walker's grave, gravediggers unearthed the body of a man long dead.  This is believed to be the man that John H Reagan buried in the early 1840's while he was part of a surveying party.
   The man died and Reagan and the other men in the party buried him where the Kaufman City Cemetery is now.  Reagan told sources the man was buried at the crest of a hill overlooking King's Creek.  In 1890 Reagan returned to Kaufman to place a grave marker on the man's grave, but when he went back to the site he was not able to recognize where the man had been buried more than 50 years prior."