|
Pioneer Log Cabin
 In the Dallas County Historical Plaza on Commerce Street, just a block east of Dealey Plaza, stands a little log cabin that recalls the city's pioneer settlers. The cabin, formerly heralded as the very first dwelling in the city, is now more correctly identified as one of the earliest. Long associated with John Neely Bryan, a Tennessee trader who founded the city of Dallas, it is now believed that the cabin is actually the handiwork of a Dallas County pioneer named Gideon Pemberton, who migrated to Texas from Kentucky. Certainly, the structure stood on Pemberton's land when it was sold to one J. F. Pinson, who in turn sold the land to the Reverend R. C. Buckner, founder of Buckner's Orphan Home. Buckner moved the cabin to the grounds of the orphanage, located on the outskirts of Dallas, where it stood for many years. During the 1920s the rude dwelling was displayed at the State Fair, where John Neely Bryan Jr., then eighty years old, "lived in it" for a while. Afterward, the cabin was dismantled and place in storage. In 1936, the Texas Centennial year, the cabin was given to the City of Dallas. At that time it was reconstructed and placed in the shadow of the "Old Red" courthouse, facing Main Street. In 1970 it was moved to its present location. Twenty years later, it was restored again, at a cost of $33,000 and rededicated at a ceremony held on May 14, 1990.
Nearby, atop a waist-high block of granite, is a bronze marker erected by the Texas Highway Department. The marker text, which is not entirely accurate, reads:
|
DALLAS COUNTY
The unincorporated town of Dallas was designated as a post office by the Republic of Texas in 1845. The county of Dallas was created by the first legislature of Texas on March 30, 1846, from portions of Robertson and Nacogdoches counties. Both city and county were named in honor of
GEORGE MIFFLIN DALLAS
1792-1864
Pennsylvania Democratic statesman who was elected the eleventh vice-president of the United States on a platform favoring Texas annexation.
|
While most historians agree that Dallas County was named for the tall, long-haired Pennsylvania politician who served in the administration of President James K. Polk, the naming of the city is less certain. John Neely Bryan, the city's founder, said only that he named it (five years prior to the formation of the county) for "my friend Dallas." The precise identity of the friend, however, is uncertain and several candidates for the honor have been listed by historians, including the vice-president, his brother - U. S. Navy Commander Alexander James Dallas, and Joseph Dallas, a man that Bryan knew in Arkansas, who in 1843 settled at Cedar Springs, a small community located near Bryan's fledgling city.
|
