Tarrant County TXGenWeb - Berachah Cemetery

Tarrant County TXGenWeb

Berachah Cemetery
Arlington, Texas

Copied by Weldon Hudson, August 2, 1996
Used with permission

This is a unique and unusual burial plot located in the northwest corner of the Doug Russell Park on the campus of the University of Texas at Arlington. The burial ground is enclosed with a chain link fence and maintained very well by the University. A Texas Historical Marker was placed here in 1981. It reads:

Site of Berachah Home and Cemetery

The Berachah Rescue Society was organized at Waco in 1894 by the Rev. J. T. Upchurch (b. 1870) for the protection of homeless girls and unwed mothers. Nine years later he opened the Berachah Industrial Home at this site. Ten buildings were located here, including a print shop for publication of the "Purity Journal." The cemetery, which contains more than eighty graves, was first used in 1904 for the burial of Eunice Williams one of the residents. The home closed in 1935, but the site was used until 1942 as an orphanage run by Upchurch's daughter Allie Mae and her husband Frank Wiese.

At the entrance gate is a marker reading,

"In honor of J. T. Upchurch, founder and Supt. of Berachah Home,
May 14, 1903, designed by J. R. Cauthon."

[See the above marker and random headstones in our Photo Gallery.]

Burials:

Annie M. Pattillos 1867 - 1917

In memory of Susie Singleton, ____ Matron in Berachah, buried in India Oct. 21, 1915

Pearl Simmons, matron from Beracah buried in India [no date]

Dorothy Myrtle Carter - Jan. 4, 1890 - Feb. 9, 1917
Erected by Make Good Club

Mattie B. wife J. F. McBride - 1881- 1933

Cap Dewey McBride - 1902 - 1904

The following are single names at the head of the marker:

Bobbie
Eugene
Edward
Elsie
Infant # 17
Martha
James
Lura Mae
Infant #16
Wilmer
Bryce
Lena
Margie
Infant #15
Winfield
Alba Mae
Charlene Infant #14
Harold
Edwin
Maurine
Kenneth
Roy
Infant #21
Infant #20
Reba
Jimmie
Josephine
Carline
Alberta
Margueriet
Albert
Homer
Reuben Josephine
Infant #12
Infant #11
Thomas
Alma Wells 1907
Infant #10
Gene
Infant #9
Frank
Infant #8
Twins #6
Infant #7
Pearl Carson 1907
Infant #1
Infant #2
Velma
George Ruth
Jesse Weaver 1908
Baby
Infant #4
Mary Hughes 1907
Eunice Williams 1904
Mary R.
Alfred
Juanita
Sammie
Ruth
Crayton
Ethel Mae
Ruth
Warneta

[No dates appear on the headstones except as noted.]

Four headstones were located in 2002 by Allen Wheatley that were not found in this 1996 inventory.

Kate Ellen Maud Trice 1913 Nora Williams 1905 Infant #19

Allen maintains a website that contains over 87,000 headstone photographs from area cemeteries, mostly in Tarrant and Dallas Counties. http://teafor2.com

This page was last modified 28 Dec 2004.