Baby Mary Bramblitt
August 17, 1871 – February 1, 1872

For several years, I had noticed a lone headstone lying on the ground near the cemetery’s front fence. I asked our sexton, Randy Griffin, whom it belonged to. Randy told me it was not connected to any of our families and that someone had slipped it through a gap in the front fence and left it there. As trustees of Merrell Cemetery, we felt morally obligated to return the headstone to its original location.

On June 9, 2026, Denise Jenkins, our president, and I were at Merrell Cemetery on another matter. We examined the broken headstone and vowed to solve the mystery. After cleaning it with D2, we were able to read the inscription.

The cleaned stone gives her name as Mary E. Bramblitt and records her birth on August 17, 1871, and her death on February 1, 1872. Beneath the dates are the words “Gone to heaven.” She was just five months old.

That began our journey to return Baby Mary’s broken headstone to her final resting place. We searched for other family members and found that many were buried in White Rock Cemetery. Denise located the cemetery’s president, and we made plans to return the headstone. When he met with us, he described the cemetery as a 2.5-acre pioneer burial ground where most of those interred are Black.

Our research led us to the Bramblitt family, whose surname also appears as Bramblett, a well-known pioneer family that settled in the Alpha–White Rock area north of Merrell Cemetery. Baby Mary’s headstone records her name as Mary E. Bramblitt.

Our search had not located a birth or death registration for Baby Mary. Her headstone preserves the dates of her short life.

The Bramblitts played a prominent role in the early development of the North Dallas area. Elkanah Columbus Bramblitt began as a farmer, with land near what is now the intersection of Alpha and Preston Roads. He later opened a profitable general store directly on the famous Chisum Trail. The cattle drives and steady traffic along the road made him a wealthy man for his time.

In 1883, he moved his family to the Lewisville area and became an evangelistic minister and a leader of Big Valley Baptist Church. He also served as a leader of Cemetery Hill Church. He was well regarded in the area and had a large family. Many Bramblitt descendants are buried in historic White Rock Cemetery (Garden of Memories), and living descendants remain in the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex.

What began as a mission to right a wrong taught us a great deal about this family and the surrounding area. Today, White Rock Cemetery is surrounded by apartments in a densely populated neighborhood. The city mows the grounds because many members are no longer physically able to help. The cemetery community holds an annual picnic, maintains an active board, and has a long history in Dallas and Collin Counties.

The photographs bring this search into view: Baby Mary’s stone with its lettering obscured, the clearer inscription after cleaning, the people gathered at the cemetery, and the surrounding graves and grounds. Two family markers bear the names Rev. E. C. Bramblitt and M. E. Wade, wife of E. C. Bramblitt. Together with the cemetery’s historical marker, these images help preserve the setting of our search and the traces of family history still visible there.

The stories of North Texas’s pioneer cemeteries are intertwined with the region’s earliest history. At Merrell Cemetery, we are proud to help preserve that history and care for those entrusted to our stewardship.

June Jordan Time, Trustee