DFW Tours! Dallas Art and Fort Worth Art

Part of the West End Walking Tour

John Neely Bryan Cabin – West End Dallas

John Neely Byran was the first Dallas resident. His family’s cabin is located at the Dallas West End. He donated the land for the Old Red Courthouse. While the original cabin was destroyed by flooding in the late 1800′s a replica is located a quarter of a mile from the original site of the founders home.

John Neely Bryan was born in Fayetteville, Tennessee on Christmas Eve 1810. He was a farmer, lawyer and tradesman. In Dallas he served as the postmaster, a storeowner, and a ferry operator. The Trinity River of Dallas was diverted in the late 1920′s. Historically it ran much closer to what is now, downtown Dallas.

He chaired of the citizens’ meeting that pushed the Houston and Texas Central Railway to complete the railway through the city, the move that created Dallas as a transportation hub and brought tremendous growth to a small hamlet at the time. Towns like Jefferson, Texas, boomed during that period, but as the rail passed them by, they become irrelevant.

He was the director of the Dallas Bridge Company, which built the first iron bridge across the Trinity River from 1871 and 1872.

In 1874 as he became mentally impaired he was committed to the Texas State Lunatic Asylum in February 1877, where he died in September of 1877. He is believed to be buried in an unmarked grave in the southeast quadrant of the Austin State Hospital Cemetery.

Lee Ann Torrans

And there in the background you see one of my favorite places for a burger or breakfast in the area:  The Record Grill.

Cheeseburger or Breakfast Taco!  Ask for jalepeno’s and hot sauce.  They understand.

- DFW Tours! What to See in Dallas and Fort Worth --

Share This

---

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•