Irving Area Offers Rich History Lesson
IRVING (CBSDFW.COM) - It's not a common community sight these days to see horsemen riding down the neighborhood street in a metropolitan area. But in Northwest Irving, the horse riders are holding on to a 100-year tradition that started with their forefathers.
Along Jackson Street, the riders pass by a collection of buildings tied to their heritage, and to the neighborhood's history. "This all along here belonged to my grandfather", Dixie Caraway said with pride. Caraway is the 79-year old granddaughter of Sam Morton. Morton was the patriarch of one of the first African American families to settle along the banks of Bear Creek, along the current-day border between Irving and Grand Prairie.
The area is considered by historians and archivists as the oldest African American community in North Texas. "It was white settlers, and many of them brought slaves", Irving City Archivist Kevin Kendro explains. Those slaves, and eventually their emancipated children, built houses, bought land and developed the region into a community safe haven for blacks, dating back to the 1850's.
Morton, according to Caraway, was one of largest land owners in the black section of Bear Creek. Caraway has lived on the same street, Jackson Street, her entire life. At age 79, she is essentially the community tour guide, pointing to houses built in the 1920's and 30's that still stand today. "I know everybody, where they lived, every corner, every house", she says with pride.
The structures that hold historic significance of the once all-black community have been moved to one location in the neighborhood. The Jackie Townsell Bear Creek Heritage Center is the centerpiece of the collection of cottages and buildings once owned by the descendants of slaves. The J.O. Davis house honors a beloved Bear Creek educator. The Sam Green house sits restored with furnishings dating back to the era the black pioneer family had as their own.
"We were all poor", former resident Gloria Oliver said. Oliver was raised on the Grand Prairie side of the Bear Creek community. Segregation and Jim Crow laws kept blacks restricted to the area for decades Oliver remembers. But the 79-year old Texas native says Bear Creek held a loving appeal for her. "We all came together, combined our efforts, socialized and enjoyed life. It was good."
The history of a freedman's town is still alive in Irving. The descendants of the first Bear Creek residents have made certain of that. Their history is Irving's history, and it sits on the same street Dixie Caraway has never left.
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