In 1858, Snyder Kennedy came to what is now Carrollton from Illinois with his wife, four children and in-laws. He bought land on the Elm Fork of the Trinity River and designated a part of it as a cemetery.

As the years passed, 23 members of his family were interred there including the grandson of the man who financed the Revolutionary War. Then the cemetery became overgrown, vandalized and forgotten.

The City of Carrollton's Planning and Zoning Commission took vacation last week to preserve one of the few remaining pieces of Carrollton's history; the Snyder Kennedy Cemetery.

Pamela Patrick, one of the Kennedy descendants, said the city's action culminates more than 30 years of work and researched by members of her family to protect the cemetery.

"We are pleased that we got some help because for the longest time we were  being ignored," Patrick said. "Back in the 1950s the cemetery was vandalized and my father went to someone at the city to protect it. The police did watch the site for a time, but basically the cemetery was forgotten by the city.

Patrick said she is still concerned about the city's right of way which extends nine feet into the cemetery.

"The historical society told us that if they have to put water lines through the property they will have an archaeologist on the site so the remains will be treated with respect," Patrick said. "However, the City of Mesquite promised the same thing to a family with a cemetery, and when they put water lines through the site, the dug up the bones and dumped them back in.

"Still, we are 99.9 percent happy with the city's plan," she said.

Mark Guy, the city's director of planning, said the present owner of the property agreed to protect the site as part of a rezoning petition.

"The Planning and Zoning Commission rendered a recommendation that approved the rezoning of Mr. M. E. Moore's property from residential to local retail with some additional stipulations to protect the cemetery," he said. "These include a 20-foot buffer around the cemetery. and this buffer no development an be built including buildings and parking lots.  Also, a wrought iron fence must e  built around the cemetery when development begins."

One member of Carrollton's Planning and Zoning Commission who has taken an active in preserving the cemetery is Fran Brown. She said Carrollton must  take action to protect not only the Kennedy cemetery, but also a cemetery that was used by the founding black families of Carrollton.

"If nobidy cares, it will be sitting under a foot of concrete," Brown said. "If no one says there is a cemetery, then no one can protect it."

Carrollton Mayor Milburn Gravely said he agreed that preserving the past was important, but so far he has not seen anything that needed to be protected.

"In the zoning and rezoning cases coming to the city, where there has been requests by property owners to rezone property or zone new property I have not seen anything the city has felt a historical designation needed to be set on that property," he said.

"There is nothing that is coming about that I am aware of that will destroy historic parts of Carrollton that are left. I think we are aware of those areas such as Old Downtown Carrollton that are of a nature that we need to protect."

Gravely said there are city ordinances and state laws against destroying cemeteries. He also said he believed that state registered cemeteries cannot be destroyed.

Brown said she wants the city to form a committee that would identify historic sites in Carrollton to be protected because she feels a need to preserve the past.

"I care because I can't identify my family past my grandmother. When someone like Pamela Patrick can trace her family back to the Revolutionary War, I think that is great."

According to research done by Patrick, Snyder Kennedy came to the area from Pike County, Ill., in 1858. Along with Kennedy, who died in 1886, 22 other family members are buried in the cemetery, including his father-in-law, Thomas Morris, whose grandfather, Robert, was the financier of the American Revolution, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and signer of the Constitution of the Unite States.

Carrollton Chronicle - December 14, 1989