Site of Berachah Home and Cemetery - Texas State Historical Marker

The Berachah Rescue Society was organized at Waco in 1894 by Rev. J.T. Upchurch for the protection of homeless girls and unwed mothers. In 1903, he opened the Berachah Industrial Home at the current location (801 W. Mitchell St. in Arlington), which consisted of ten buildings including a print shop for publication of the "Purity Journal." The cemetery was first used in 1904 for burial of residents and eventually contained more than eighty graves. The home closed in 1935, but continued operation as an orphanage run by Upchurch's daughter Allie Mae and her husband Frank Wiese until 1942.