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HomeMy WebLinkAboutJack Day and the GladeANDREW JACKSON "JACK" DAY AND THE GLADE by Weldon G. Cannon Revised 2019 This is primarily a biography of Andrew Jackson "Jack" Day, but it also tells part of Lite history of the Pleasant Glade community, now split among the cities of Colleyville, Grapevine and Euless. He owned considerable acreage, was a community leader and lived there more than 70 years. The history of The Glade, as it was commonly called, is told more fully in histories of the three cities, especially Colleyville, because most of the site is now situated in that city. Weldon Cannon, Temple, Texas, Revised 2019 ANDREW JACKSON DAY By Weldon G. Cannon Andrew Jackson "Jack" Day, born in the pine forest country of East Texas, came to northeastern Tarrant County as a boy when it was still on the frontier. He settled in a small farming community that soon came to be known as Pleasant Glade and spent most of this life there. Eventually, he became the owner of about 130 acres of land that today is the site of Colleyville Heritage High School, shopping centers, upscale housing and one acre that has been the site of a church or school for over a century. In his new home, he became a successful farmer, community leader and progenitor of a considerable family still concentrated in North Texas, but scattered from coast to coast. Jack Day, as he was known by family and friends, was born on July 3, 1850, probably in Anderson County. [A. J. Day Grave Marker, Parker Memorial Cemetery, Grapevine, Texas; FORT WORTH -STAR TELEGRAM, Evening ed., January 8,1934, p. 4.] The exact place is not known; his parents are also unknown. He had a brother, or half-brother, named Jeptha or Jepsey Lawrence Day, born May 8, 1846, who usually went by his middle name. (Mrs. A. D. Lewis (Sarah Frances "Fanny" Day) to Weldon G. Cannon, interview, December 30, 1962, Palo Pinto, Texas; Elvis Mead Day to Weldon G. Cannon, interview, October 28, 1962, Fort Worth, Texas; Cora Lee (Day) Head to Weldon G. Cannon, interview, November, 1962.] According to one family tradition, Jack and Lawrence were left orphans during the Civil War and separated from each other. The tradition does not suggest if these tragedies resulted from the war, or were unrelated to it. [Day interview, 1962.] According to another family tradition, the Day family was in a wagon train when it was attacked by parties not identified in the tradition. The parents were killed, but their sons, Jack and Lawrence, survived. The boys were separated, then later reunited. [Mrs. Tommy Hays to Mrs. Wayne (Frances Day) Moyers, interview, 1999, Bridgeport, Texas.] Perhaps there are elements of truth in both of these traditions. Exact details will probably never be known. Nevertheless, it is clear that the fortunes of the Day family were closely linked to people well-known to Texas History --the Parker family. Again, family tradition tells much of the story, but in this instance with considerable documentary support. According to family stories, Isaac Green Parker and his wife, Mary "Polly" (Driskill) Parker, a childless couple, took in Jack, or maybe both Jack and Lawrence, and reared them. [Head interview; Day interview.] Isaac Green Parker, son of Benjamin F. W. and Susannah (Robertson) Parker, was born in Illinois in 1816. He married Mary "Polly" Driskill in Coles County, Illinois, in 1838. After his father was killed in 1836 in an Indian attack on Fort Parker near present Groesbeck, Isaac Green and Polly Parker came to Texas to claim his portion of his father's land. His cousin, Cynthia Ann Parker, was captured in the attack on the fort. She became the mother of Comanche Chief Quanah Parker. Isaac Parker, Tarrant County resident, Texas state senator and early settler of Parker County, named for him, was the uncle of Isaac Green and Cynthia Ann. Elder Daniel Parker, who brought the first Baptist congregation to Texas, was Isaac Green's great-uncle. line church was actually organized in Illinois and brought to Texas in late 1833 or early 1834 to circumvent Mexican laws prohibiting organizing or establishing Protestant churches in Texas. "Daniel Parker, " THE NEW HANDBOOK OF TEXAS, vol. 5, pp. 58-59; J. M. Carroll, A HISTORY OF TEXAS BAPTISTS, p. 1923, Dallas, Baptist Standard Publishing Co.; Helen Gould Orrick Reagan, THE REAGAN-PARKER FAMIY GENEALOGY, pp. 307-309, 1987, Fort Worth, Miran Publishers; Anderson County Genealogical Society, PIONEER FAMILIES OFANDERSONCOUNTRYPRIORTO1900.] The Parkers settled in present Anderson County by January, 1834, near Elkhart, but by 1850 Isaac Green and Mary Parker were living in Rusk County, about sixty miles east. [U.S. CENSUS, 1850, Rusk County, Texas, p. 511.] Although Jack Day was not enumerated in the 1850 census for Texas, his brother Jeptha Lawrence Day, age three, was living in Rusk County, not far from Isaac Green and Mary Parker, in a residence with John R. Day, age 21, Mary Day, age 17, and Emily Day, age 23. [U.S. cENsus, 1850, Rusk County, Texas, p. s45.J The relationship of these people has not been determined. According to obituaries written at the time of his death in 1934, Jack Day migrated from Anderson County to Tarrant County with his parents when he was seven years old. Whether these were his birth parents or his foster parents is not known. [FORT WORTH STAR -TELEGRAM, Evening ed.,January8, 1934, p.4.] This would have been about 1857. In an affidavit filed in the Tarrant County deed records in 1913, Jack Day affirmed that he moved to Tarrant County in 1857. (DEEDS, Tarrant County, Fort Worth, Texas, vol.42, p. 495.1 Isaac G. and Mary Parker apparently moved to Tarrant County about 1853. In 1857, they purchased the entire 222 acre Elizabeth Cox survey, located in the present cities of Colleyville and Grapevine. Isaac G. Parker was issued the original patent, or title, for the property, in 1857. [File #2990, Robertson Land District, Class 3, Texas General Land Office, Austin, Texas; Reagan, p. 509; G. A. Holland, THE DOUBLE LOG CABIN, 1931, Weatherford, Texas, p. 21.] It is extremely difficult to trace the movement of these people because the Tarrant County census for 1860 was lost and the Tarrant County Court House burned in 1876, destroying all earlier records. The Parkers and Days were truly pioneers in the area. It was only a few years earlier, in 1841, that white people had attempted making a permanent settlement in present Tarrant County at nearby Bird's Fort. In 1849 Fort Worth was established and the county was created. Although the first court house was located in Birdville, now part of Haltom City, it was moved to Fort Worth in 1856. The total population of the county in 1850 was 664. By 1860 it had increased to 6,020. The Parker and Day families settled there during this time of astonishing growth. The first documentary evidence linking the Days and Parkers is a deed dated 1872, when Jack Day purchased 46.5 acres of land from Isaac G. and Mary Parker. In 1879 he bought 84 more acres from them. [DEEDS, Tarrant County, Fort Worth, vole 115, pp. 606-7; vole 118, pp. 362.3.] The Parkers were a childless couple who were said to have reared "many" orphans, including, according to Day family traditions, Jack, and maybe Lawrence. [Reagan, p. 309.] While the Parkers might have reared "many" orphans, it was Jack Day who eventually acquired, albeit by purchase, sixty percent of the Parker's Tarrant County property. In his 1913 affidavit he also claimed that he still had in his possession the original patent, secured by Isaac G. Parker, to the land. This would probably account for traditions that the Day family had inherited and patented the Parker property. [Day interview, 1962; Elvis Mead Day to Weldon Cannon, interview, August 7, 1958, Fort Worth, Texas.] Jack Day married Sarah Elizabeth "Betty" Essex, probably in Tarrant County, in about 1868 or 1869. (William Green Day, Certificate of Death, Texas Department of Health, Bureau of vital Statistics, #64718; U.S. CENSUS, 1880, Tarrant County, p. 143.1 Betty's origins are almost as obscure as Jack's. According to the best evidence, she was from Tennessee, perhaps Rhea County. Apparently, she had a sister, Mary, who married Christopher Columbus Carroll. The Carrolls became the parents of a large family who lived in Dallas and Tarrant counties. One of their daughters married a Biggers. The Biggers also had a large family. [Day interview; Mrs. ArthurTallaferro (Lora Wilma Day) to Weldon G. Cannon, interview, July 9, 1978, Fort Worth, Texas; Bob Carroll to Weldon G. Cannon, interview, Sept. 3,1969, Garland, Texas; U.S. CENSUS, 1900, Dallas County, Texas, E.D. 146, p. 13; U.S. CENSUS,1870, Rhea Co., Tennessee, p. 266.] Although documentary evidence for the relationship of the Day and Parker families might appear meager, another detail seems to strengthen the family traditions. All of Jack and Betty Day's children were given names from the Parker family- two sons named for Isaac Green, and a daughter named for Mary "Polly" Parker's mother, Christina Driskill. [U.S. cENsus, 1880, Tarrant County, Texas, p. 143; William Green Day Death Certificate; TEXAS DEATH RECORDS, Isaac E. Day, Lousetta C. Millicon; Day interview,1968j Lawrence and his wife, Mary Elizabeth, also lived in Tarrant County by 1870. When they settled there is not known. [U.S. CENSUS, im, Tarrant County, p. 503; Tarrant County Tax Rolls, 1872.1 They still lived there in 1880, but eventually moved to Hood County, and then Palo Pinto county. [U.S. CENSUS, 1880, Tarrant County, U.S. CENSUS, 1900, Hood County, Texas, E.D. 96, p. 5; Lewis interview.] Jack was a farmer, like almost everyone else in Pleasant Glade. The community was located in the Eastern or Lower Cross Timbers, a narrow strip of sandy loam soil between the Blackland Prairie on the east and the Grand Prairie on the west. Large oak and other deciduous trees, plus thick brush, grew in the Cross Timbers, making it quite different from the grassy prairies. Thus, there was a ready supply of timber for houses, barns and fences, as well as fire wood. Wild animals living in the underbrush provided fresh game. The soil was particularly adapted to producing fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as cotton, corn and wheat that grew in most Texas soils. The regular U. S. Census of 1880 for Tarrant County, plus the agricultural census and Tarrant County tax rolls, provide a fair profile of Jack Day as a farmer. He had 21 acres in cultivation and 80 in woodlands. (He had sold some of his property by then.) He had one carriage/wagon/buggy (probably a wagon); two horses; eleven cattle, including four milk cows, eleven hogs; and fifteen chickens. He produced 100 bushels of corn on eight acres, two bales of cotton on six acres and twenty bushels of sweet potatoes. Most of his neighbors fitted this profile. But Jack produced two crops not common to area farmers --fifty pounds of tobacco from a quarter of an acre and peaches from fifty trees. He used tobacco himself, but probably also sold surplus to his neighbors. He also probably sold or traded fruit to neighbors, or maybe even hauled it to market in Fort Worth or Dallas. He might have shipped it by rail from nearby depots at Grapevine or Bransford. The size of his farm and its value were far above the averages of his neighbors. [U.S. CENSUS, I880, p. ??? U.S. Census, Agricultural Schedule, p. ???; Tarrant County Tax Rolls, 18?? 18?? etc.] He also took an active role in community affairs. He was a Primitive Baptist, following the religion of the Parkers. (Carroll,AHISTORY OFTEXAS BAPTISTS, pp.45-50; CENTENNIAL STORY OFTEXAS BAPTISTS, Dallas, 1936, Executive Board of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, pp. 21-22; Jesse Driskill to Weldon G. Cannon, interview, December29,1967, Fort Worth, Texas.] But in 1878 he sold an acre of his property on the south side of present Glade Rd. and a short distance west of Heritage Dr. in Colleyville to "D. S. Harris, R. Harrington and James Hensly and their successors in office in the Church of Christ, for the use of the Church of Christ and a neighborhood school." (DEEDS, Tarrantcounty, vol.x, pp.408-409.] A school was soon organized, known as Pleasant Glade, and a building erected near the southwest corner. [PLEASANT GLADE CHURCH REGISTER, p. 2, copy in possession of author. The copy was made from the original register borrowedfromJesse Driskill of Fort Worth in 1969.] This was one of the "community schools" created between 1876 and 1884 to serve rural areas of Texas. These were informal institutions, without district boundaries or taxes, that operated for a few months each year. The state provided a small payment for each student enrolled. Each year, interested local citizens organized the school, collected some funds, secured a building and hired a teacher. On August 6, 1881, a church was officially organized. The church register begins with the following preamble: "We the undersigned members of the body of Christ assembled under the arbor at or near Pleasant Glade school house for the purpose of setting ourselves in order as a congregation of Christians to be known and recognized as Pleasant Glade church or congregation ..." D. S. Harris was selected as elder, R.[Robert] Cobb and W.[William] F.[Frank] Driskill as deacons. About 43 people were listed as charter members. [PLEASANTGLADECHURCH REGISTER, p. 2-6.] In 1903, a new wooden frame building with a high steep roof was built near the center A the north side of the property. It served both the school and the church. The church met only on Sunday mornings --about 15 or 20 peopleforSunday school, communion, singing and prayers. Occasionally there was preaching. But the church had great revival meetings, conducted under a brush arbor erected each summer on the grounds. Outstanding among revival preachers was M. H. Moore, Bedford native, Tarrant County and Fort Worth school superintendent and minister of the gospel. In 1917 a fine two-story brick school building, with an auditorium, was erected. The church continued using the old frame building until it was soon torn down. Sometime between about 1921 and 1923 the church disbanded when a school trustee objected to the church using the new school auditorium, Jack Day's deed notwithstanding. Pleasant Glade church members then went mainly to Grapevine or Bedford to ch u rch. (Mrs. Charlie F. (Mae Sours) Hall to Weldon G. Cannon, interview, November 29, 1959, Grapevine (Pleasant Glade), Texas; Mrs. R. C. (Ruth Parr) Miller to Weldon G. Cannon, interview, November29, 1969, Euless, Texas; check Commissioner Court minutes for Pleasant Glade bond vote for new school.] In 1936 the Pleasant Glade School District consolidated with the Grapevine district and R. E. L. Bradford purchased the general store in Pleasant Glade, across the road from the school. In 1937 he also purchased the school property and allowed the newly organized Pleasant Glade Assembly of God Church to use it, officially transferring title to the church in 1943. The Assembly of God Church sold it in 1996 to St. Marys Romanian Orthodox Church which uses the site today as its place of worship. Hence, since 1878, this acre of ground, once part of the farm of Isaac Green and Polly Parker and Jack and Betty Day, has been the site of a school or a church. [Charles H. Young, ed., GRAPEVINEAREA HISTORY, Grapevine Historical Society, Grapevine, 1979 pp. 32-33; Tarrant Commissioners Court Minutes, 32:592, 33:16 Tarrant County Deeds, 1332:559, 6547:6201 12518:524-528.] Jack Day continued to take an active role in community affairs, and because of the size A his farm and its prominent location, his name occasionally appears in Tarrant County Commissioners Court Minutes. In 1876 the Johnson Station (now part of Arlington) and Grapevine Road was laid out. This became a major artery connecting southeastern Tarrant County with the northeastern part. It passed through part of the Day farm, running just in front of Jack and Betty Day's house and on the west side of the local burial ground, now Parker Memorial Cemetery, The Tarrant County Board of Equalization, apparently recognizing the importance of the new thoroughfare, raised the value of the Day farm from $230 to $276, that is, from five to six dollars per acre. In 1879, Jack was appointed overseer for a mile and a half section of the road between the Pleasant Glade Community and Big Bear Creek. [MINUTES, Tarrant County Commissioners Court, vol. A, pp. 106, 132,191; vol. B, p. 61; the road was also called the Johnson Station to Dunnville (early name for Grapevine) Road; see various maps of Tarrant Countyfrom the late 18o0s and early 1900s.] Jack and Betty lived near the center of the Pleasant Glade community. It was never a town, just a rural community of scattered farms surrounding a school, a church and a few small businesses clustered around an important road intersection. The Arlington -Grapevine Road crossed the Fort Worth -Shreveport Road in Pleasant Glade, at the Day residence. The road names suggest the importance of the location. Today, Pleasant Glade, or simply The Glade, as it was often known, has almost totally disappeared, except in the memories of old-timers and perhaps in the names of one or two churches and a street. Most of it is now in the city of Colleyville, with smaller parts in the cities of Grapevine and Euless. Subdivisions, residential and commercial developments and businesses in the three cities perpetuate the name Glade. (mid; Day interview, August 9, 1968.] Although his children were grown and gone from home by the turn of the century, Jack Day was still interested in the welfare of the local school. In 1898 he and his neighbors petitioned commissioners court for a change in the boundary line between the Pleasant Glade and Pleasant Run school districts. In 1901, he served as a judge for a school trustee election, and was elected one of the trustees. He also served as one of three commissioners to determine appropriate division of a neighbor's property that was the subject of a lawsuit. (MINUTES, Tarrant County Commissioners Court, vol.16, pp. 53-56, ??-?? Tarrant County Deeds, ??-??.] Jack and Betty Day's three children were born and reared at the Glade --William Green in 1870, Lousetta (or Loucille, according to her grave marker) Christina "Lou" in 1874 and Isaac Elvis "Tobe" in 1877. Will married Mary Ellen "Mae" Milson in 1891 in Tarrant County, Lou married James "Jim" Millican in 18??; "Tobe" married Callie Mae Harcrow in Hood County in 1901. [MARRIAGES, Tarrant County, ??? Mrs. Roy (Hazel Jessie Day) Denton to Weldon G. Cannon, interview, July 11, 19781 Grand Prairie, Texas.] Jack's strongly held opinions about his likes and dislikes sometimes resulted in domestic difficulties. He especially hated cutting wood, even for the cook stove. On one occasion, when there was no wood to fire up the stove, Betty cut up vegetables for a meal, then put the dish in the yard to "cook" in the sun. Jack finally got her point and thereafter always had fire wood for the cook stove. [Lewis interview.] Betty Day died March 7, 1900, and was buried in the community cemetery about a mile north of the family farm. She was buried at the top of a hill beside the Parker family. The first known burial at this site on the Parker farm was of Christina Driskill, Polly Parker's mother, who died in 1862. Isaac Green Parker died in 1875 and was buried near his mother-in-law. In 1877 Polly married Martin G. Turner. In 1881, she deeded four acres to the State of Texas for use as a burying ground "in consideration of love and respect of my husband, Isaac G. Parker, and relatives and friends." She died in 1897 and was buried beside Isaac Green. Her second husband lies buried in an unmarked grave on her other side. The burial ground came to be known as Clements Cemetery as early as 1900, named for the William A. Clements family who lived next to the cemetery. At a cemetery association meeting in 1937, at the suggestion of Will Day, it was renamed Parker Memorial Cemetery, in honor of Polly Parker who had donated the property. The site is now in the city of Grapevine. Jack claimed to know the name of every person buried in the cemetery, even those without tombstones. He once offered to go to the cemetery and identify every unmarked grave. Unfortunately, no one accepted his proposal. [Grave markers, Parker Memorial Cemetery; "Parker Memorial Cemetery,"MS file, Texas Historical Commission, Austin, Texas; Evelyn D'Arcy Cushman, CEMETERIES OF NORTHEAST TARRANT COUNTY, 1981, Celle -Kirk Printing, Arlington, Texas; Day interview, August 9, 1968.] Following Betty's death, intestate, the children deeded their interest in the estate to their father. He in turn deeded parts of his farm to Will and Mae Day and Lou and Jim IVlillican. [DEEDS, Tarrant County, voL 190, pp. 390-392; Vol. 96, p. 525; vol.298, p. 234.] Jack also sold two acres of his farm to a local businessman in 1907. [Ibid., vol. 261, p. 602.1 In 1918 he sold an oil lease on the remaining 45 acres of his farm during one of a series of oil and gas excitements that swept through northeastern Tarrant County and northwestern Dallas County in the early 1900s when there were great expectations of finding the precious minerals locally. [Ibid., vol. 5887, p. 88.] In 1900 he was living in the same residence with Lou and Jim Millican, who had probably moved into the house with him. WIII and his family, who had been living on rented farms near Pleasant Glade, moved to his new property.near his father and sister. (u.s. CENSUS,1900, ??? ??? Day interview, August 9, 1968; Mrs. Arthur (Lora Wilma Day) Taliaferro to Weldon G. Cannon, August 31, 1967; Day interview, August9,1968.1 In 1903, however, Will and Mae purchased a farm near Bedford and moved there. (DEEDS, Tarrant County, voL 196, pp. 39-40.] In 19??, Lou and Jim bought a farm on the Grapevine Prairie in northeastern Tarrant County, where the Dallas -Fort Worth International Airport is now located. [Ibid., ??? ???] In 1910 and 1920 Jack was living with them, and probably was with them till about 1928 or 1929. He had a small room of his own, upstairs in the story and one-half house. He occasionally visited with Will and Mae Day at their Bedford home for a few days at a time ju.S. CENSUS, 1910, ??? ???; ibid., 1920, ??? ??? Ernest Millican, Jr., to Weldon G. Cannon, interview, Feb. 25, 1999, Haltom City, Texas; Mrs. Arthur (Lora Wilma Day) Taliaferro to Weldon G. Cannon, interview, July 9, 1978, Fort Worth, Texas.] While living with his daughter and son-in-law, another one of his particularly irritating faults became evident. He chewed tobacco, and when it was time to spit, he did it, at anytime, anywhere in the house, on the floor, or wherever he was at the time. His daughter Lou, disgusted and upset by this habit, lectured him constantly about it, without success. [Millican interview] In 1923, Will and Mae sold their Bedford farm and moved to Fort Worth. They bought a residence on Greer St., a few blocks northeast of downtown. (DEEDS, Tarrant County, voL ??? p. ??? vol. ??? p. ???.] Jack joined them about 1928 or 1929 but lived in a small bungalow in the back yard. He ate his meals with them, however. (Taliaferro interview, July9, 1978.] Although reared as a Primitive Baptist, Jack Day had sold an acre of land to trustees in 1878 for use of a Church of Christ. Many of his best friends and neighbors belonged to the same church, and he attended services there for many years. It was not until about 10 or 12 years before his death, however, that he was baptized into the Church of Christ. Will Day had belonged to the Church of Christ since 1889 and had been active in Churches of Christ wherever he lived. Jack made his decision at the preaching of M. H. Moore and was baptized at Grapevine. [Jesse Driskill to Weldon G. Cannon, interview, December29,1967, Fort Worth, Texas.] Jack made friends quickly and was particularly fond of chatting with neighbors, who often dropped by his new Fort Worth home. Since his hearing was impaired, Mae, who was always at home, had to interpret his conversations with his friends. After finishing a hearty breakfast on January 8, 1934, he stepped into the front yard, accompanied by Mae, to visit with one of his neighbors. He had a heart attack and died instantly in the yard in her arms. [Taliaferro interview, July 9, 1978; FORT WORTH STAR -TELEGRAM, Evening ed., January 8, 1934, p. 4; FORT WORTH PRESS, January 8, 1934, p. 3.] Officiating at his funeral service, held under the tabernacle at Clements Cemetery, was M. H. Moore, superintendent of Fort Worth Public Schools from 1914 to 1931 and close family friend who often preached at the Bedford Church of Christ where Will and Mae had been members for many years. [FORT WORTH STAR -TELEGRAM, Evening ed., January 9,1934, p. 3.] Active pallbearers were Jess Driskill, Bob Morrison, Charlie Hall, Charlie Pless, Bill Gilbert, Wallace Estill, Thaddeus Gilbert and Bill Deacon; honorary pallbearers were Bob Parker, Henry Lipscomb, Hugh Hightower, J. W. Huffman, Jess Rogers and W. A. Milson. All were close friends, mainly from his earlier days when he lived at the Glade. He was buried beside Betty at the Clements Cemetery and near his foster parents, Isaac Green and Polly Parker. [Ibid.; Grave markers, Parker Memorial Cemetery.] Will Day lived in Fort Worth the rest of his life, where he worked as a school custodian, mainly at North Side High School, until he was 84. He and Mae- had five children, three surviving to adulthood. He died November 12,1959, and is buried at Parker Memorial Cemetery. Lou and Jim Millican farmed in northeastern Tarrant County. Four of their five children reached adulthood. She died January 19, 1956, and is also buried at Parker Memorial Cemetery. After Tobe married Callie, they moved to Fort Worth, where they lived till about 1920. Then they moved to a farm at Munday, Texas. When he retired they moved to Rule, where he died December 20,1961, and is buried in a nearby cemetery. They had three Children. [interviews, Public Records] Jack and Betty Day had 11 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren when he died. About five more great-grandchildren were born later. Today there are hundreds of descendants of this pioneer couple. Most of them still live in the Dallas -Fort Worth area and North Central Texas, but some are scattered as far as Massachusetts and California. [interviews, Public Records] These were true trail -blazers, who contributed significantly to the development of Pleasant Glade, a community now almost forgotten, but then an important part of northeastern Tarrant County. If Jack could visit The Glade today, he probably would not recognize anything except the beloved cemetery. He certainly would know most of it, and probably could still identify the unknown graves.