Published in The Garland Daily News on October 19, 1980, as part of a series by Betty Roberts.
THE CARL AXE FAMILY
The Carl Axe family settled in Garland in 1873. Carl had arrived in the United States in the late 1840s and lived in New Orleans. He was born in Germany in 1831. His family is known to have lived in Prussia as early as 1618 when the family name was Achrst.
Carl worked as a blacksmith in New Orleans. There he met and married Charlotte Mueller. They brought their young family to Texas.
A mistake on the land title brought Carl to Garland. Carl wanted to be a farmer and contracted to buy 320 acres in Dallas County. Because of the mistake, he took his second choice, land in Garland. The original tract he tried to buy was developed into the present Park Cities.
Carl and his brother Ludwig came to the area at the same time. Ludwig settled in Dallas. The brothers gave the lot, built the building and provided the organ for the first Lutheran church in Dallas County. The original structure of the Zion Lutheran Church was on Swiss Avenue. The church later was moved to Skillman and Lovers Lane.
The 320 acres located “on the waters of Duck Creek” were at the area of present day Garland Road and Axe Drive. Axe Drive is almost in the center of the property. The small branch of water that begins near Jupiter Road and joins Duck Creek at Glenbrook has been called Duck Creek Number Two and Axe Creek.
The original property included the area between Kingsley and the creek from Garland Road to Saturn Road. Later, additional land was added until most of the property from Garland Road to Fifth Street was owned by members of the Axe family.
Carl Axe died in Garland May 10, 1898. Charlotte died November 12, 1899. They were the parents of six sons and four daughters.
Charles Christian was born in New Orleans in 1869. He was thirteen when he came to Garland. He later had his own farm and built his farmhouse on what is now Cranford Drive, one street south of Kingsley.
Mrs. Gerald Cooper, Charles’ daughter, lives where the farm house stood. She has grandchildren and great-grandchildren living in Garland. Charles’ son Herbert also lives in Garland. Herbert has two children. A son lives in Garland and a daughter lives on the Plains.
William, another son of Carl and Charlotte, was born in 1876 in Garland and died in 1923. He had a farm on what is now Carney Drive. He had seven children; five still live in Garland. Ernest lives in Canton. The youngest son, Cecil, was killed in World War II.
The other children are Fred, William, Raymond, Clara Daniel, and Elizabeth Carney. Two of Will’s children live on Carney Drive on what was their father’s farm.
John, another son of Carl’s, moved to Hamby, near Abilene. The daughters and their families are scattered over the United States.
Axe Drive is named for the Axe family. Axe Memorial Methodist Church on Kingsley stands on what was once part of the Axe farm. The church was named in memory of Charles Christian Axe, who died in 1938, and his son, Charles, who was killed in World War II. The property for the First Lutheran Church on Saturn Road was also donated by the Axe family.