Benbrook Cemetery Holds More Stories Than You Might Expect.

If you have ever driven down Mercedes Street and passed the quiet stretch west of Winscott Road, you have gone by one of Benbrook’s oldest anchors: the Benbrook Cemetery.

It looks peaceful and unassuming, but its history stretches across nearly a century and a half of local life, loss, and change.

The cemetery began in 1885 on land purchased from Dr. John Snyder and was first known as the Marinda Seminary Graveyard. Those earliest plots belonged to families who helped shape what would eventually become the City of Benbrook. Over time, the cemetery grew, not only through the community’s natural expansion but through a significant moment of regional development.

When the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the Benbrook Dam in the late 1940s, five small rural cemeteries located in the floodplain needed to be moved. In 1949, the Hunter, Day, Mustang, January, and Muhlinghause cemeteries were consolidated into what is now Benbrook Cemetery. The relocations preserved hundreds of graves that otherwise would have been lost to rising water levels once the dam and Benbrook Lake were completed.

The City of Benbrook took ownership and maintenance responsibilities in 1966, ensuring the grounds remained cared for and historically intact as the town continued to grow around it.

Just next door, another chapter of local history sits quietly along the southeastern edge. The Howard Cemetery was relocated here in 1955 from what is now the Tanglewood area in southwest Fort Worth. Unlike the main cemetery, the Howard Cemetery is still privately overseen by descendants of the Howard family.

For longtime residents and newcomers alike, Benbrook Cemetery is more than a place of remembrance. It is a reminder of the families, farms, relocations, and reshaping of land that built the community we call home today.

Anyone needing information about those burial records can reach representatives at (817) 485-4769 or (817) 271-4470, as the City of Benbrook does not maintain those records.