Hart, Abraham

Abraham Hart was born on May 12,1822 in Guilford County, North Carolina, the son of Jacob and Elizabeth Hoftieintz Hart. In 1844, Abraham, at the age of 22, accompanied his father and mother and the rest of the family as they migrated from Illinois to Texas, where Jacob Hart obtained a 640-acre land grant in the Peters Colony settlement in Dallas County. When Jacob Hart died in 1847, Abraham became head of the household and claimed the original land grant on behalf of the surviving Hart heirs.

The first Hart residence in Texas was a log cabin built just east of where the old Dallas County Courthouse stands today. Abraham helped build the courthouse, and served as a juror on the first jury to function in Dallas County.

On May 11,1848, Abraham married Elizabeth Ray. They were one of the first couples to get a marriage license in Dallas County, and were married in the John Neely Bryan cabin. The couple bought 100 acres of land in an area which would later be the 5700 block of Gaston Avenue, and here the family farm and homestead was located until 1906 when the home and some land was sold.

Abraham served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, and was captured at Yellow Bayou, Louisiana, while carrying a wounded comrade behind him on his horse. The horse was shot out from under him and the wounded soldier was killed. Abraham was taken prisoner, but his family was mistakenly notified that he had been killed.

While a prisoner, Abraham contracted pneumonia and typhoid fever, and was sent to a hospital in New Orleans for eleven months. When he was finally released, he was too weak to walk to the wagon train carrying discharged soldiers to their homes. A friendly blacksmith carried him by horseback to the wagons, and also sent word to his family to meet him near Dallas with a carriage to take him home.

Abraham and Elizabeth had 11 children, nine of whom lived to adulthood and were married. Following Elizabeth's death in 1900, Abraham lived his last few years with his son, John Elbert Hart and his daughter-in-law, Jewel Whitescarver Hart on Hartline Drive in the Casa View area of Dallas. On Sunday, November 2,1913, upon returning home from a day at the State Fair, the family found Abraham dead. He was 91.

Abraham and Elizabeth are buried in the Cox Cemetery near White Rock Lake in Dallas. On his tombstone are the words: "He lived as a Christian and as a Christian died."