Frankford, Texas – Texas frontier town, church, and cemetery.
Location: 32 59 18N 96 49 22W
17400 Muirfield Drive, Dallas, Texas 75287
Frankford was a small 19th century town 16 miles Northwest of Dallas, Texas, a water-stop along the historic Preston Trail. Its remnants are surrounded by a Dallas suburban neighborhood, and include a wooden church and cemetery under the conservation of the Frankford Preservation Foundation. The site includes three Texas historical markers. Nearby is the major Dallas East-West boulevard, Frankford, and the Frankford Middle School is also named for the town.
Located on the Eastern bank of the small “Indian Creek” (upper White Rock Creek), Frankford once served as a water stop for travelers and cattle drives on the Preston Trail. The town of Frankford declined once the St. Louis Southwestern railroad chose a nearby route, with its main stop in Addison, one-mile Southwest of Frankford. In 1907 the Masonic Lodge, once the backbone of the Frankford community, relocated to Addison, though the founding families (Cook and McKamy) remained in Frankford.
Name: Writings by Collin County historian Frances Wells conjecture that the name Frankford may describe a "ford" (a shallow crossing of the Indian Creek), and that the crossing was "frank" or free. Others speculate that the “ford” was called Frank’s ford, after a settler’s son, Frank Cotton.
Origins: The prairie and thin woodlands North of present-day Dallas were once shared by several nomadic great plains’ tribes, including the Comanche, Wichita, Caddo, Cherokee, and Kiowa. These tribes sometimes used a trail (occasionally called the “Shawnee Trail”) originating in Mexico and traveling though present-day Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri toward the Ohio Valley, the lands of the Shawnee. In 1841, the Republic of Texas established the Preston Trail, which overlay part of the old Shawnee Trail. It became the major route for movement between Southern Oklahoma, over the Red River, North Texas, and Central Texas, to Austin. (Preston Trail would later become Preston Road/Texas State Hwy 289.)
The family of W.C. McKamy moved to Texas in 1852, providing water and selling firewood to settlers on the Preston Trail. A free-flowing “Indian Spring” provided fresh water - flowing into Indian Creek. The White Rock Masonic Lodge (named for the White Rock Creek into which Indian Creek flows) established the major community building, the two-story Masonic Hall Lodge (1872), the first floor of which also served as a combination schoolhouse and church. One notable former person who attended the school was William Furneaux of Carrollton. The Furneaux name adorns numerous places in nearby Carrollton. A post office was established at Frankford in 1880. At its height, around 1900, Frankford had a steam grist mill, corn mill, cotton gin, blacksmith shop, two general stores and three churches, with 83 residents, many from the Cook and McKamy families.
Frankford Cemetery: (Not to be confused with Frankfurt Cemetery, Kentucky) The grounds were first used as a cemetery to inter the remains of Pioneer Eliga M Yaeger in a now unmarked grave in 1862. The earliest marked grave is that of John T. Coit (1829-1872), a lawyer who moved to the area from South Carolina. He raised a regiment during the civil war and served as a “colonel.” Also, buried here is Margaret McKamy (1786-1873), one of the original settlers who came from Tennessee to Texas with her son, William C. McKamy, who became a prominent area landowner. Numerous McKamy family members are interred there. Also buried here is Addison Robertson for whom the competing town of Addison was later named. (The town of Addison would eventually eclipse Frankford.) The cemetery has long been associated with White Rock Masonic Lodge No 234, which relocated their masonic hall to this site in 1872. The hall also served as school and church, until Methodists constructed their own Methodist Church on the site. The cemetery remains well-maintained and is visited by members of the nearby neighborhood.
Frankford Church: The first wooden church was constructed as a Methodist Church in 1880, but was soon destroyed by a tornado. Lumber from that original church was used, in part, to construct the present-day wooden church, which is a single room sanctuary of approximately 2,500 square feet with smooth dark wood pews. Ultimately, the church ceased to operate as a Methodist Church, and was eventually operated by the Episcopal Church starting in the 1960’s. (The Episcopal Church would ultimately build a series of modern masonry structures nearby.) The Frankford church is well maintained by the Frankford Preservation Foundation which makes it available for weddings and events.
Frankford Preservation Foundation: The foundation maintains the church and surrounding prairie grounds. It also provides tours of the church and surrounding native prairie grounds, which are under its conservation. The Foundation also preserves the history of the town of Frankford and maintains the natural prairie surroundings.
References: 1. Frankford Middle School, history: https://www.pisd.edu/Page/7039
2. Dickerson, Sallie. "The History of Frankford Cemetery." [1978]
3. "Frankford, Texas" New Handbook of Texas, Vol. 2. Austin, Texas: Texas State Historical Association, c1996.
4. Wells, Frances. "Frankford Church."