Section E5, grave 20.1
Born 1859 in California
Died 1861 (aged 2 years, 7 months)
There is a marker in the cemetery from 1861 for David Ogle. Just a toddler at
the time of his death in Dallas, David was born in "Sanwan" (San
Juan), California in 1859. The idea of people migrating from California
to Dallas in the mid 19th century sparked our curiosity, and we wanted to know
more about this child’s journey. Luckily we found a colorful
biography from David’s widely-traveled father, an excerpt of which is below.
Reader discretion advised.
"I, Luther Alexander Ogle, was born A.D. January 11, 1834 in Cooper
County Missouri. I left Missouri when I was only ten years old and came to
Dallas, Texas. Stayed there two years, then moved back to Missouri and stayed
there until 1849. Then I moved to Coffeeys Bend, Texas, on the Red River and
remained there that winter. Early in the spring of 1850, I left with a train of
50 wagons for California, by way of El Paso, Texas. Thence through the
territories of New Mexico and Arizona to Los Angeles, California. I failed to
mention that a wagon train had started to California several days before our
train started. After we left El Paso, we met the U. S. troops who informed us
that the train that had started first had been massacred by the Indians and
that they had come to escort us to Los Angeles. Before we reached Los Angeles
while crossing the Gila River, my mother died. We used one of the wagon bodies
to make her a coffin and buried her there. After leaving Los Angeles my father
was thrown from a mule and seriously injured from which he died on Christmas
Day ten miles south of Los Angeles and was buried there. In the spring of 1851,
we left Los Angeles and went to Stockton and from there to Coyote Creek. We
built a house there and remained there till the spring of 1852. Then my brother
John Ogle and I went to Sacramento and sold our stock. In the summer of 1852,
we left Sacramento for Salt Lake in company with Berry Barton and a man by the
name of Colter and five other men we did not know. When we got to Salt Lake, we
found thence to be Mormons by their wives running out and hugging and kissing
them. We stayed there five days and then went on toward Missouri. While we were
in camp upon the Platte River Barton and I went hunting. We killed a buffalo,
and came on back to camp to find our mules and horses gone. We followed the
trail they had gone one day and night on foot--a distance of 100 miles. They
had been taken by an immigration train on the way to California. We came up
with this train and demanded our mules. The leader of the train told us to take
the mules and the men who had stolen them too. After returning to camp, we went
on to Lafayette County Missouri and from there to Copper County Missouri, I
went alone. From there I went to Dallas, Texas in company with my brother and
sister. We traveled on horse back. I stayed there from 1852 to the fall of 1853
and while there was married to Miss Angeline Chess(i)er (?). At this time I was
19 years of age and she was 15. We left Dallas and went to Fort Smith, Arkansas.
From there we went in 1854 to California by the way of Salt Lake. Some of the
creeks on the way were hard to cross, and one woman who could not ride waded
across. We pulled her along with ropes. At Salt Lake, we stayed one day. While
here I saw Brigham Young in a wagon with 36 of his wives. They were driving six
yellow horses. From Salt Lake we went to Virginia City, Utah. Stayed there one
winter working with cattle. There were a great many Indians here. One day
hearing my wife call I ran to the house. She was holding an Indian by the hair
and four dogs were eating him up. The Indians had tried to shoot her. From
Virginia City we went to California and this time stayed six years, working in
the mines on Kearn River for two years digging gold. From California I came
back to Dallas, Texas. Here I farmed for a good many years and during the war.
From Dallas, Texas I went to Blanket Creek and from here to James River. At
Pegleg Crossing while we were traveling one of the horses began kicking and
struck my son David Ogle in the head breaking his skull. We went to the home of
Mr. Creed Taylor on James River 22 miles from Junction City. I lived here two
years, the rent of the land costing nothing for 250 head of cattle and 50 head
of horses. From here we went to Devils River, 22 miles from Sonora. After my
wife died I went to Llano to my son David Ogle. We went from Llano to Hackberry
Creek near Rock Springs Edward County. We lived here until my son was killed.
After David's death I lived with my son William Ogle for a year. From there I
moved to Bandero County where I have lived for the past two years with my
son-in-law, Mr. Ben Faris.
The End"
Section F6, grave 18.1
Born March 30, 1833, in Nelson County, Kentucky
Died November 25, 1895, in Dallas (aged 62)
Of the many notable residents of Western Heights Cemetery, none likely
accomplished more in life than Zachariah Ellis Coombes, Sr. A soldier, lawyer,
judge, state legislator, and an early settler to the Dallas area, Coombes’
family name is still visible on landmarks in the city.
Coombes was born in Kentucky in 1833 to William and Ivy (Green) Coombes. In
1843 the family moved to Dallas as early settlers of the Peters Colony, a land
grant made in 1841 by the Republic of Texas to 20 American and English
investors led by William S. Peters. After a brief return to Kentucky as a young
man, Coombes came back to Dallas and married Rebecca Finch Bedford in December
1856. The couple had seven children.
In 1858, Coombes traveled more than 130 miles west of Dallas to Young
County, TX, to run a school on the Brazos Indian Reservation. During his brief
time as a school master and teacher he began to study law, and took to keeping
a detailed diary. He published these writings in 1859 in a book titled “The
Diary of a Frontiersman 1858-1859.” The intro of the book reads:
"This is the authentic diary of a frontiersman. The diary is a day
by day account of the happenings of the frontier as seen through the eyes of a
schoolteacher. The teacher, Mr. Z.E. COOMBES was employed by the US Government
at a salary of $800 per year to teach the children of families living on the
Brazos Agency Indian Reservation. Aside from his teaching duties, Mr. COOMBES
made a agreement with the Superintendent of Indian Affairs in Texas to supply
food and lodging for those who were to come and go on the reserve…”
In 1862 Coombes joined the Confederate Army as a member of the 31st Texas
Cavalry Regiment and was promoted to captain of Company G the same year. The
regiment served in Indian Territory, Arkansas, and Missouri, and fought in the
battle at Newtonia, Missouri, in September 1862. Little else has been found
about the remainder of his service, but it is noted that he served in the
Confederacy through the end of the war in 1865.
After the war Coombes was elected county judge of Dallas County in the 1866
election, but was removed along with other Dallas County officials the
following year as “impediments to Reconstruction.”
In 1870 Coombes began a successful and long-running law practice, first as
the firm of COOMBES & BOWER, then GOOD, BOWER & COOMBES, and later
COOMBES & GANO. He then developed a long-running political career. He
was an alderman of Dallas in 1871, and a delegate to the state Democratic
convention in May 1884. In 1885 Coombes was elected to the state House of
Representatives and was a member of the 19th Texas Legislature. He served a
single two-year term as a Democrat representing Dallas County. Coombes was
a member of the Masons and even served at one point as the Grand Master of
Masons in Texas. One of the highlights of his career was when he laid the
12,000 pound cornerstone of the Texas State Capitol in Austin on March 2nd,
1885, the 49th anniversary of Texas independence.
He died in 1895 at age 62. His son William Nelson Coombes, also a judge, is
buried here as are Zachariah's first wife Rebecca Finch Bedford Coombes and his
first son, stillborn in 1857.
We hope we have done Mr. Coombes justice with our brief story, but if you
want to find out more please go read these great sources, which were invaluable
in our research:
Texas State
Historical Association
Texas
Legislative Reference Library
Combs-Families dot org
A
World War I veteran's broken and partially missing stone has been at Western
Heights Cemetery since at least 1992. The military issued stone only includes
his name and indicates that he was from Kansas. The broken stone with its
bottom portion missing was included in the 1992 Dallas Genealogical Society
survey. The back of this marker reads “N 558,” which is the format for the
section and plot number for graves in a military cemetery, which of course
Western Heights Cemetery is not. Soldier Calvin has no ties to Texas that our
researchers were able to find. Also, he is African American and, like most
other cemeteries of that time and place, Western Heights was
segregated. If he were buried here, he would be the only African American
interred at Western Heights to our knowledge.
In an effort to learn more about Calvin so that we could craft a brief
biography for him for our veterans tour and
holiday flag placement ceremonies for veterans, a broad internet search
was enacted. It revealed that there is a Fred Calvin from Kansas with a WWI
marker buried in Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery -- at plot N 558!
How could that be? Is one of the stones a cenotaph?
Neither one says "In Memory Of" at the top, which is the usual
indication of a military cenotaph. After much additional fruitless searching we
were able to get in contact with someone at Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery
who was able to explain, at least partially, what happened.
The two Calvins are one and the same. He died in 1963 and was buried at Fort
Leavenworth National Cemetery in section N, plot 558 with the marker that is
currently at Western Heights. His wife died in 1968 and was buried next to him.
His original stone was removed at that time and a new one was created
with his name on the front and her name on the back.
In those days, the unused headstones at Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery were
not destroyed, and at one point were being used to shore up an eroding creek
bank. That practice ended after a passing jogger who did not understand what he
was seeing raised an alarm and caused a public scandal. The surplus stones were
then removed from the creek bank and pulverized, and a different form of
erosion mitigation was put in their place.
For some reason we will probably never know, someone picked up Calvin's
original, now surplus, stone before it and the others were crushed. This person
or persons then brought the marker to Western Heights Cemetery at least 34
years ago, perhaps as a prank. It is located very near the grave of infamous
depression era gangster Clyde Barrow. Barrow's headstone was stolen several
times over the years, always during the weekend of the long-running Texas/OU football
rivalry, which brings thousands of college students to Dallas each year. Maybe
during one year's raid Calvin's stone was brought to Texas and left in Barrow's
place. Later on perhaps someone moved it to the nearest unmarked grave
thinking it belonged there, where it has remained for the last third of a
century.
Thanks to an introduction from Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery personnel, we
held a memorial and life-honoring ceremony at Western Heights Cemetery on March
25, 2026, after which we took Calvin's original stone to Dallas-Fort Worth
National Cemetery, where it was respectfully decommissioned, never again to be
a source of confusion with his grave in Fort Leavenworth, used as erosion
control, be stolen, or be the gist of a prank.
An honor guard of veterans accompanied his stone from Western Heights Cemetery
to Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery. A cenotaph marker will soon be placed
in Western Heights at the spot where Calvin's stone mysteriously stood for at
least 34 years, to tell visitors his life story and explain why his (duplicate)
stone is no longer here.
