Bethel Cemetery

James Parrish came to Texas from Ohio prior to 1844 as a member of the Peters Colony. He and his wife Eliza Jane (Record) moved to Dallas County about 1848. They established a home in this area on the Elm Fork of the Trinity River which became known as the Parrish neighborhood. Sometime before James Parrish's death in October 1853, he and his wife set aside land on their farm for a community cemetery. Joshua Hill was buried here in 1859, the apparent victim of smallpox. More interments occurred in the following decades, including those of James Pinson Howell (1865), John L. Howell (1866), and Malinda Pemberton Howell (ca. 1871). Also believed to be buried here are five men and a boy who were victims of a lynching in 1869; several Confederate vererans of the Civil War; and two former slaves. Although descendants estimate there were at least two hundred graves here, all but two have been lost to vandalism and development of the surrounding area. The two remaining tombstones mark the graves of one-day-old Oda Kirby (1909) and three-year-old Ervin Wickersham (1910 - 1913). The Historic Bethel Cemetery Association, formed in 1987, cares for the graveyard.

Bethel Cemetery is a historical marker in Coppell, Dallas County, dedicated in 1989. It is one of 352 historical markers documented in Dallas County in the Texas Historical Commission Atlas, among 574 historic sites cataloged across the county.

The site sits at 32.9586, -96.9763 near Coppell. The nearest cataloged historic site is Stringfellow-Moore (cemetery), about 0.2 miles away. Others within a short drive include Parrish Family Cemetery, Bullock, and Grapevine Springs Park.

This record corresponds to Texas Historical Commission Atlas #5113006595. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.