Old Holly Springs Cemetery

Holly Springs, Arkansas

This Cemetery is also known as: Old Union Hill Cemetery & Old Jeffery Burial Grounds.

Legal description: Unknown.

GPS Location: 614451 - 3913104

Arkansas Archeological Survey site #: Pending.

Number of Marked Graves: About 10.

Number of Unmarked Graves: Unknown

The last complete survey of this cemetery was: July 20, 2000 By Leroy Blair.

Current status of cemetery: This cemetery is no longer in use.

Point of contact for cemetery. No known contact person.



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Photo by Leroy Blair

This abandoned cemetery is located about a quarter-mile north of Holly Springs Church. It was originally listed as Holly Springs

Cemetery in May 1962 by Cloie and Leister Presley of the White County Historical Society, who reported it "just about on the line

between Section 3, Range 7 West, Township 8 North and Section 34, Range 7 West, Township 9 North." Their list was published in

the 1971 edition of the Society’s White County Heritage. "This location was abandoned," they wrote, "because of the difficulty in

digging graves in the rocks. A boy was killed by a pitched ball in a baseball game and they never could get his grave dug deep

enough in the rocks. This was the last effort to bury there."

The cemetery was visited July 20, 2000, by Historical Society member Leroy Blair. Following is his report: "This cemetery is

located just north of the Holly Springs Church on Fairview Road. It is at the first house on the right side of the road almost in the

back yard. It is very overgrown with broken markers. There appear to be several unmarked graves." Also, he noted that a new

marker was recently placed at this cemetery which has the name Genetta Chilcoate Davenport on one side and "Old Jeffery Burial

Ground" on the other side. Blair reported additional confusion over the fact that the nearby Castleberry Cemetery now has a sign

"Holly Springs Cemetery" over the gate. [See Holly Springs – Castleberry Cemetery.]

The Presleys lived nearby, at Clay, at one time and were very familiar with both cemeteries before they prepared their lists. "When

we crawled through the barbed wire fence and visited the cemetery in 1962, it was in sad shape," Leister Presley said in June

2002. "Graves were sunken and the place had obviously been abandoned." Some residents of the area now call this cemetery



"Union Hill." (Number in parenthesis indicates the position on the Presleys’ list.) They reported indications of 20 other burials or

attempted burials.

If you have corrections or additions to this list or other information on this Cemetery Contact the White County Historical Society,

P.O. Box 537, Searcy, AR 72145. Or phone 501- 278- 5010

Following is a list of known burials in this cemetery.

Barkhouser, Mary Ellen – May 10, 1847 – October 9, 1896 - Old Holly Springs,

Bradney children – the last three sites have one stone and are the children of W.H. & L.E. Bradney - Old Holly Springs,

Bradney, Eugene – December 18, 1897 – April 12, 1898 - Old Holly Springs,

Bradney, Infant son – April 13, 1901 – April 20, 1901 - Old Holly Springs,

Bradney, Infant son – Born and died August 30, 1905 - Old Holly Springs,

Pool, Eliza – May 19, 1918 – age about 85 years - Old Holly Springs,

Pool, Noah E. – November 8, 1877 – March 23, 1900 - Old Holly Springs,

Southard, George E. – Died December 1919 - Old Holly Springs,

Southard, Rebecca – Died February, 1922 - Old Holly Springs,

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Legend: Copyright-Aug.23, 2016-Paul V. Isbell-Webmaster:

Most of the cemetery information listed was collected by Leroy “Lee” Blair Former member of the White

County Historical Society Board of Directors. Now working at the White County Historical Society office on

the square in Searcy. WCHS P. O. Box 537 Searcy, Ark. 72145.



If you have any additions or corrections to the burial listing please contact the Historical Society. Phone 501-

278-5010 or Email me at

lblblair74@gmail.com

or wchs1962@gmail.com

I will be posting more burials later. The Searcy Daily Citizen donated all their Micro Film and Ledgers dating

back to 1953. After reviewing them, if I find a death of a person that we do not have I will to add to the

cemetery listings.

There are some graves listed as unmarked that may have had a tombstone set since the listing was made.

I may have missed some graves when I prepared the listing. Some cemeteries are very hard to get an

accurate listing due to how some graves are scattered

The following Abbreviations are used in the listings

.

FM-Funeral home marker DS-Double tombstone TS-Triple tombstone

(Obit)-means that the Historical Society has, or has access to the Obituary for this person.