Smithfield Cemetery, North Richland Hills, Texas

Smithfield Cemetery, North Richland Hills, Texas
South Entrance

In the year 1887 the St Louis and Southwestern Railway built their tracks close to the area called Zion in Tarrant County, Texas. As happened with many little towns like this, it was eventually abandoned after the people and businesses began to drift away and relocate closer to the railroad where a new development grew up. This new settlement was called Smithfield, for Eli Smith, the resident who donated land for a church and cemetery.

"By the late 1940s Smithfield reported 350 residents and eight businesses. Nearby North Richland Hills annexed Smithfield in 1958. The Smithfield name survives in several local institutions, including a middle school, and on historical markers at the Smithfield cemetery, Masonic lodge, and two churches."

1861 - 1865
LEST WE FORGET
Dedication to the Memory
of those Confederate Veterans
that Served the South with
Honor Courage and Valor

Eli Smith
Texas Historical Commission

(Mar. 11, 1848 - Jan. 27, 1879)

A native of Missouri, Eli Smith moved to Texas in 1859 with his parents. They settled in this part of Tarrant County, and in 1868 Smith married Sarah J. Hightower. About 1876 Smith donated part of his farmland to the community, then known as Zion, for a Methodist Church and cemetery. Residents of the area honored Smith for his generosity and community service by renaming the settlement Smithfield. Smith remained an active Mason and a successful farmer until his sudden death shortly before his thirty-first birthday. He is buried at this site. (1984)

Eli Smith
Born Mar. 11, 1848
Died Jan. 27, 1879
Aged 30 Yrs. 10 Mos.
& 16 Dys.

Order of the Masons Symbol

Mary Idena
Dau. of
Eli & S. J. Smith
Born Oct. 8, 1872
Died July 22, 1887

Ancient Cedars of Smithfield Cemetery

 

Sources

Photographs:

Smithfield Cemetery, Tarrant County, Texas, Digital Photographs. 2009. Privately held by Judith Richards Shubert, Fort Worth, TX. 2009.

Websites:

Smithfield United Methodist Church - North Richland Hills, Texas, http://www.smithfieldumc.org/about.html : accessed July 31, 2009.

Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. "Smithfield, Texas" http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/SS/hjs17.html (accessed July 31, 2009).

Cemeteries Photographed by Allen Wheatley, Cemeteries Index for Smithfield Cemetery, North Richland Hills, Tarrant County, http://teafor2.com/Smithfield.html : accessed July 31, 2009.