Listed in Arkansas Register of Historic Places on 11/05/02

SUMMARY

Gravel Hill Cemetery is located in a rural area northwest of St. Francis, Clay County, Arkansas. The cemetery is the final resting spot of some of the earliest settlers of the area. According to local legend, the cemetery began during the Civil War when soldiers killed in action at the nearby Chalk Bluff Battle were buried there. A portion of the "Old Military Trail," which soldiers and other travelers followed, is still visible in the section just east of Clay County Road 336. Many of the oldest graves in the cemetery are located near or at the edge of this trail. The trail was said to have been the only clear way to travel through the once surrounding swamps and dense forests.

The cemetery has around 1,092 marked graves with 661 being historic. The earliest dated headstone is 1869. The cemetery contains at least eight Civil War veterans’ graves, as well as veterans’ graves of other wars, including World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

Gravel Hill Cemetery is located on Clay County Road 336, approximately three and one-half miles northwest of St. Francis, Clay County, Arkansas. It is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places under Criterion A for its local significance as the final resting place of some of St. Francis’ earliest settlers.

It also meets the eligibility requirements of Criterion Consideration D for Cemeteries because it dates to the community of St. Francis; formation. Gravel Hill Cemetery has attained significance from its association with the community’s development.

Gravel Hill Cemetery is located northwest of St. Francis in northeast Clay County. The town of St. Francis lies on the banks of the St. Francis River. When St. Francis was first settled, the area consisted of swamps and dense forests. Previously a part of Greene County, Clayton County was formed in 1872. It became known as Clay County in 1874. Early settlers to the area established the community of Chalk Bluff.

St. Francis was formed in January 1883 by the Southwestern Improvement Company (SIC), an Ohio based timber-development corporation. Three years later, in 1886, St. Francis was incorporated. Settlers moved to the town from Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana, lured by timber jobs and farming opportunities. Most of the community of Chalk Bluff moved to St. Francis. St. Francis developed economically during the timber boom of the late 1800’s and into the early 1900’s. During this time, St. Francis included numerous businesses: six general stores, one drug store, four grocery stores, four sawmills, one stave factory, one meat market, two churches (Methodist and Cumberland Presbyterian), two hotels, boarding houses, one school house, a restaurant, a Triple Alliance Lodge Hall, a box factory, a handle factory, and an opera house. Timber remained a dominant export from the late 1880s until the 1920s, when the timber boom had fizzled out. Whereas the current population of St. Francis is less than 250, it had reached over 1,500 during the timber boom.

The St. Francis River and the St. Louis Southwestern Cottonbelt Railroad helped spur the area’s immense timber boom. Historical accounts say that in 1882, when the railroad was laid through St. Francis and the surrounding area, willow trees were cut and laid in the swampy area and the railroad tracks were placed on top. Once the trees were cut and the land drained, the acreage was made available for agriculture, which continues to be the economic base for the local economy.

ELABORATION

Gravel Hill Cemetery is located on Clay County Road 336, approximately three and one-half miles west of St. Francis. The cemetery encompasses approximately 20 maintained acres with three rolling hills. Gravel Hill Cemetery is comprised of seven sections of graves situated on either side of the roadway. The Hall-Gravel Hill Cemetery Association maintains the upkeep for Gravel Hill and Hall Cemeteries. The non-profit association was formed in the 1940s. The Hall-Gravel Hill Cemetery Association hosts the annual St. Francis Picnic on the third Thursday each July to raise funds. There is no charge for cemetery plots. Two caretakers oversee weekly maintenance and dig graves with a shovel as the association feels a backhoe would mar the landscape and potentially damage the headstones.

The main entrance to the cemetery is marked with a wrought iron sign and a United States flagpole. Clay County Road 336 cuts through the most western section of the cemetery. The main paved roadway follows around the southern, eastern, and western edges of the cemetery. From Clay County Road 336, one paved roadway intersects the main section of the cemetery almost in half. This roadway splits into two roadways just before connecting to the southern segment of the main paved roadway.

Gravel Hill Cemetery is dotted with large oak trees. Some of the oak trees measure several feet in diameter. Clusters of cedar trees are located throughout the cemetery. Also, trees line the cemetery around all four sides.

GRAVESTONES

Many of the area’s early settlers, who contributed to the economic development of St. Francis, are buried at Gravel Hill. The oldest headstones are upright, narrow, and made of various grades of marble. Over the years, many have been broken. These are currently mended with welded metal frames. At the time when the frames were put on, the Hall-Gravel Hill Cemetery Association believed this was the best method to preserve the stones and prevent further damage to them.

The historical gravestones construction range from obelisks, altar-shaped and castle-shaped tops, beveled, etc. The headstones were created from a number of materials, including marble, limestone and granite. Some of the taller stones, in obelisk shapes, rest on bases with unique raised trellis designs. One obelisk gravestone would represent the graves of three to four family members.

Most of the headstones contained religious references, including doves, renderings of the "kingdom of heaven," praying hands, and Masonic and Order of the Eastern Star emblems.

Louis C. Olds’ headstone is located under a post oak tree. The top of the stone is shaped like a full-size alter or pulpit with an open bible resting on it. The headstone is carved as if a cloth trimmed with ornate tassels and fringe is draped over the stone. Other stones in Gravel Hill Cemetery have a variation of the tassel and fringe design.

The oldest known headstone is that of Sarah Gills. She died in 1869. The Gills Family was one of the first to settle in St. Francis.

This is a breakdown of burials by decade:

1860s - 3 1940s - 80

1870s - 22 1950s - 70

1880s - 41 1960s - 105

1890s - 85 1970s - 97

1900s - 113 1980s - 53

1910s - 94 1990s - 93

1920s - 80 2000s - 28

1930s - 73 No Dates - 55

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF THOSE BURIED IN HALL CEMETERY

Liddell Family

The Liddells were a prominent family who participated in local businesses and politics. In 1852, William and Louisa (Mitchell) Liddell settled in the Chalk Bluff community from Weakley County, Tennessee. Their son, William Scott (W.S.) Liddell was the first St. Francis postmaster. Prior to moving to St. Francis, W.S. Liddell was the postmaster for Chalk Bluff. W.S. Liddell moved when the railroad opened a route through St. Francis. During the Civil War, he was a member of the 5th Trans-Mississippi Regiment. On July 4, 1863, during the Battle of Helena, the Union Army captured W.S. Liddell. He was transported to Alton, Illinois, and held as a prisoner of war. In March 1864, he was transferred to Fort Delaware, Delaware, and stayed there until the end of the war. In 1867, he married Sarah J. Dalton, a member of one of the first families to settle in the area.

When the railroad opened, W.S. Liddell built the first mercantile business in St. Francis. W.S. Liddell was also prominent in politics, serving as Clay County treasurer, and was a member of Chalk Bluff Lodge 72 I.O.O.F., where he served as secretary for almost 10 years, treasurer and junior warden. The township in which St. Francis lies has always and continues to be called "Liddell Township."

Gills Family

The Gills Family came from Fulton County, Kentucky, and was one of the first to settle in St. Francis. The Gills Family operated a sawmill. Sarah Gills, who died in 1869, has the oldest dated headstone. Sarah’s son, A.W. Gills, was a prominent businessman and farmer in St. Francis. He erected a cotton gin that produced up to nine bales per day. He also started a stave mill that produced 8,000 staves a day and employed 30 to 35 men working in 10 teams. Later on, he opened a corn mill under the same roof as the stave mill.

Langley

A.J. Langley was a prominent farmer and Civil War veteran. He served with the 29th Mississippi Regiment, Volunteer Infantry under Generals Bragg, Johnston and Hood. In November 1864, he was captured at the Battle of Franklin in Tennessee. He was sent to Camp Douglass in Chicago as a prisoner of war. On June 18,

1865, he was released and began the trip back home to Mississippi. He moved to Chalk Bluff, Arkansas, in 1869. He was a member of the Methodist Church and of the Masonic fraternity, Eastern Star Lodge 207 F&AM.

Looney

W.R. Looney was a popular druggist in St. Francis and was said to be one of the most successful in Clay County. He moved to Clay County at a young age and later he worked at a dry goods store in adjacent Dunklin County, Missouri. While working at J.S. Kochtitshky and Company, as a steam corn-sheller, he suffered a serious arm injury that permanently damaged the limb. In 1886, Looney moved to St. Francis, and operated a drug and grocery store. He closed the grocery line after one year. In addition to his drug store, he farmed clover on several acres outside St. Francis. He believed the plant to be a profitable crop as well as helping to conserve the soil.

Magee

William Washington Magee, also known as Uncle Webe, moved to the Chalk Bluff community from Weakley County, Tennessee, with his parents. He was a Lieutenant in the Confederate Army, and participated in the battle near Chalk Bluff. He served as Justice of the Peace in Chalk Bluff for forty years. He was the Worshipful Master for 28 years and elected as the Grand Master of the Masons in 1920 in the Masonic fraternity, Eastern Star Lodge 207 F&AM.

Smiths

Jurdon and Lurena Hays Smith, along with her father and stepmother, Ezekiel G. Hays, Jr. and Nancy Whitehead Hays, and the Hays’ three children, Malinda Emaline, Simon P., and H. Marselus moved from Pike County, Indiana, to an area called the Gravel Hill community, near St. Francis. The Smiths and Hays helped organize the Gravel Hill General Baptist Church. They had written to Indiana requesting for a minister to be sent. Elders Joseph Weathers, T.J. Davis, and W.E. Bray travel to Gravel Hill community from the SE Missouri Association of General Baptist. The Gravel Hill General Baptist Church was formerly organized in 1875.

Boyd

Sometime after 1870, Mary Ann Emison (Boyd) (Freeman) moved to Clay County from Crockett County, Tennessee, with her second husband, her four Boyd children and three Freeman children. They settled in the Chalk Bluff community. The Boyds and Freemans were charter members of the Gravel Hill General Baptist Church. The children married into older settler families, thus establishing the Boyd and Freeman names in Clay County.

SIGNIFICANCE

Gravel Hill Cemetery is the final resting-place for the settlers of St. Francis, and is significant to the history of the town. The settlers buried at Gravel Hill were trailblazers in their own right, including entrepreneurs, farmers, and Civil War battle and prison camp survivors. Their combined experience gave them the courage to face the thick, forested swamps in and around St. Francis, and create a viable and sustainable community with an economic base of mercantile operations, timber, and agriculture. Agriculture continues to be the economic base today.

Gravel Hill also contains part of the old Military Trail that was used, not only by Civil War soldiers, but also by early travelers and settlers. The Military Trail was the only route through the swamps and dense forests in Clay County.

The close ratio of historic to non-historic burials, and the continuing use as a cemetery, precludes Gravel Hill Cemetery’s nomination to the National Register of Historic Places. It is being nominated to the Arkansas Register under Criterion A for local significance for its association with the early settlement of St. Francis, and Criterion Consideration D for cemeteries.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cox, Camilla. Clay County, Arkansas: Cemeteries, Volume 1. 1990

Goodspeed’s Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Arkansas. 1889

Payne, Laud. Memoirs of Early Days in Clay County, Arkansas. 1969.

Webb, Robert T. History and Traditions of Clay County. 1933.

Winchester, Anne. "St. Francis Picnic Celebrating 50 Years." Piggott Times. July 12, 1989.

_________. "Looking Back: St. Francis." Piggott Times. September 23, 1992.

Historical information about Chalk Bluff Community from Mary Beth Olds.