On West Irving Boulevard west of North Sowers Road, on the right when traveling west.
Permanent settlement in this part of Dallas County began before the Civil War with the establishment of small farming communities and supply centers. In the early years of the 20th century, while working on the construction of the Rock Island . . . — — Map (db m150535) HM
On W 4th Street, on the right when traveling east.
When the town of Irving was founded in 1903, developers Julius Otto Schulze and Otis Brown set aside parcels of land for the Baptist, Church of Christ, and Catholic denominations. The new town grew steadily, and by January 1904 the Irving Baptist . . . — — Map (db m150583) HM
On West Pioneer Drive, on the right when traveling west.
William Haley (1831-1908) and his wife Lucinda Catherine (1834-1875) came to Texas from Missouri in 1857. They established a farm in this area and later operated a general store. When Lucinda Haley died in 1875, a one-acre site on the family farm . . . — — Map (db m150473) HM
On South O'Connor Road, on the left when traveling north.
One of Irving's best known early builders, A. Fred Joffre, and his wife built this airplane bungalow in 1919 in the original Irving townsite. Their daughter sold the home in 1936. Pioneer doctor Franklin Monroe Gilbert and his wife Dorothy, a . . . — — Map (db m150598) HM
On East Irving Boulevard at East 6th Street, on the right when traveling east on East Irving Boulevard.
Virginia natives John W. and Jestine Gorbit had a farm in this area by 1850. A settlement known as Gorbit grew up around it and became a stop on a pre-Civil War postal route. In 1855, Jonathan Story moved here from Illinois with his wife and 13 . . . — — Map (db m150557) HM
On West 27th Street west of West Airfield Branniff Drive.
Soon after lay minister Green W. Minter (1803-1887) moved here about 1854, he helped organize Minter's Chapel Methodist Church. His son in law James Cate set aside 4.1 acres here for a church and a burial ground. The earliest marked grave is of . . . — — Map (db m201917) HM
Near E Irving Boulevard east of Balleywood Road, on the left when traveling east.
Settlers came to this area near the Elm and west forks of the Trinity River in the mid-1800s. Isaac Henry “Ike” Story built a grocery store in what became the community of Gorbit (also known by similar spellings). Ike Story was the . . . — — Map (db m146217) HM
On South O'Connor Road, on the left when traveling north.
In 1912 Charles P. Schulze (1877 - 1957) contracted with builder A. Fred Joffre to construct this one-story cypress-clad bungalow as a residence for himself and his wife, Virginia Tucker (1886 - 1966). Schulze, who owned and operated the Irving . . . — — Map (db m150542) HM
On Hard Rock Road just north of Conflans Road, on the right when traveling north.
African Americans came to this area as slaves of white
settlers such as William Haley and William Borah before
1845. The land around this site was deeded to early white
settler Chilton Smith in 1851. After the Civil War, many
former slaves . . . — — Map (db m244863) HM
On West Pioneer Drive east of Fouts Drive, on the left when traveling east.
By 1856, Edmund D. and Freelove Sowers, who came to Texas from Illinois, owned land in this vicinity. Along with their neighbors, including Jacob and Henry Caster, and William and Lucinda Haley, they farmed, hunted game and cut timber. Ed Sowers . . . — — Map (db m150477) HM
Near Haley Street east of South MacArthur Boulevard, on the right when traveling east.
Area Catholic services date from the 1860s, when mass was held in private homes. The Mission of St. Luke was established in 1902, and met temporarily in the Lively School building northeast of original Irving. Oral tradition states that . . . — — Map (db m150532) HM
On East Grauwyler Road, on the right when traveling east.
Attracted to the fertile land along the Elm Fork of the Trinity River, settlers first came to this area in the mid-19th century. William and Virginia Smith, of Pennsylvania, arrived in 1879. Soon thereafter, Charles and Lucy (Santerre) Voirin . . . — — Map (db m150547) HM
Near West Pioneer Drive west of West Grauwyler Road, on the right when traveling west.
Mississippi native D. W. Gilbert came to Texas in 1874. Graduated from Missouri Medical College in 1881, he began his practice in Euless and Grapevine. In 1884 he moved to Sowers, purchased 1500 acres of farmland, planted a peach orchard and . . . — — Map (db m150487) HM
Near West Pioneer Drive, on the right when traveling west.
Franklin M. Gilbert was a teacher and principal before attending medical school at the University of Texas in Galveston. He interned in New York, where he met nurse Dorothy Bald Brandon (1901-1990), who became his wife. The couple returned to . . . — — Map (db m150488) HM
On West Pioneer Drive east of Crisp Drive, on the left when traveling east.
Burial plot was begun in 1868, when a woman and her daughter, whose names have been lost, were interred on the land of Seveir Smalley, a local landowner. In 1874, Edmund D. Sowers (1826 - 1909) and his wife, Freelove, donated one adjoining acre as . . . — — Map (db m150482) HM
On Jackson Street east of Gilbert Road, on the left when traveling east.
Settlers began arriving in this area, once a part of Robertson’s Colony, in the 1850s. Early families included the Casters, Borahs, Sowers and Haleys. Following the Civil War, freedmen moved to the area, and friends and families once separated by . . . — — Map (db m95918) HM
On Jackson Street east of Gilbert Road, on the left when traveling east.
Jackie Mae Townsell has devoted her life to preserving the rich history of Bear Creek and providing a better way of life for the people who call this community home. Born April 7, 1936, Jackie Howard was 13 years old when her family moved from . . . — — Map (db m95999) HM
On Riverside Drive at California Crossing Road, on the right when traveling north on Riverside Drive.
In the middle and late 1800’s, wagon trains carrying settlers and freight covered vast southwestern landscapes that often resembled “Seas of Grass.” The most popular wagons, built in the Pennsylvania towns of Conestoga and Pittsburgh, . . . — — Map (db m129806) HM
On TX-356 Service Road at North Story Road, on the right when traveling west on TX-356 Service Road.
Mississippi native Daniel Webster "D.W." Gilbert (1854-1930) was one of three brothers who became Texas doctors. At age 20, he joined his brother, Franklin Monroe Gilbert, in Grapevine and began to study medicine under him. In 1879, he enrolled at . . . — — Map (db m150522) HM
