Where in the heck is Sunnyvale, you ask? It makes a triangle with Garland to the north and Mesquite to the west. The Pleasant Ridge cemetery has very little published information online, but I found that it has roughly 1100 burials. From my wanderings, the oldest headstone I found* was dated to 1878. Mary C, daughter of A.N. and E.A. Keen. She was born in June of 1863 and died in April of 1878. As with many cemeteries of this time, a number of headstones were for children.
My best finds today were three white bronze headstones! What is white bronze, you ask? Zinc carbonate. If you find one of these headstones, you will know immediately that it is not made of any type of stone. ‘Zincies’ look brand new even though they were all the rage back in the late 1800s. They were marketed as headstones that would stand the test of time by repelling moss, lichen and wear. And, dang it, they really have. In the late 1870s, white bronze headstones were new, unproven, and strenously fought against by local stone workers. Traditional stone workers in several cities effectively fought to have them banned from local cemeteries. That makes these type of headstones relatively rare in your average cemetery. They are even more rare in DFW because the closest foundry was in New Orleans.
Zincies ranged in price from $10 to $5000 ($250 to $123,000 in today’s money!). Designs were published in a catalgoue. Orders were placed with representatives who rode on horseback, accepting orders, relaying them to the foundry, scheduling installation, etc. They were definitely worth the trouble though – just feast your eyes on that crisp detail, 140ish years later. I have uploaded Mary C’s headstone for comparison which isn’t really a fair comparison because I am using the absolutely least worn stone in the whole cemetery from that time period.
*and could read; many of the headstones were too worn to make out dates.
