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

SUMMARY

Hall Cemetery is located in a rural area southwest 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. However, there is speculation that burials may have been done in pre-war years as well.

Hall Cemetery contains about 244 marked graves with 164 being historical. There are some unmarked graves throughout the site. Visible indentions in the soil indicate even more historical graves. The earliest dated gravestone is 1871.

The cemetery contains at least six Civil War veterans’ graves, as well as veterans’ graves of other wars, including World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

ELABORATION

Hall Cemetery is located approximately one and one-half miles west on Clay County Road 336 then approximately one-half mile south on Clay County Road 347. The cemetery encompasses about 6 acres of fairly flat terrain. Hall Cemetery takes it name from Hall Church, a Cumberland Presbyterian Church, which was located next to the cemetery. The church disbanded in the early to mid-1940s. The Masonic lodge, at one time, met on the second floor of Hall Church. The lodge was organized in 1867 and chartered in 1868. Eastern Star Lodge 207 F&AM purchased the rights and claims to Hall Church in 1946. The church was razed and a new lodge hall was constructed on the same site. Eastern Star Lodge 207 F&AM has been nominated to the National Register of Historic Places.

Also in the 1940s, the non-profit Hall-Gravel Hill Cemetery Association was formed. The 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 of Hall and Gravel Hill Cemeteries, and dig graves with a shovel as the association feels a backhoe would mar the landscape and potentially damage the headstones.

The entrance to the cemetery is marked with a wrought iron sign and a United States flagpole. Clay County Road 347 lines the west boundary of Hall Cemetery. Paved roadways line the southern edge. One road goes along the entire southern edge, while another road cuts around the lodge building. Large oak trees and cedar trees line the eastern and northern edges. These trees date back to the formation of St. Francis in 1883, and represent the town’s once main resource. Within the past five years, two of the large oaks have been lost in storms. Fortunately, none of the headstones were damaged when the trees fell.

GRAVESTONES

Many of St. Francis’ notable families are buried at Hall Cemetery. These families have some of the more ornate gravestones. Most of these stones are situated upright. They include obelisks, beveled, etc., and are made of a variety of stone - marble, limestone, concrete and granite. One obelisk gravestone would represent the graves of three to four family members. There are at least six known Civil War veterans buried in Hall Cemetery.

Out of economic necessity, the Cruces used concrete slabs for several children’s graves, which died young from illnesses or at birth. These concrete headstones contained lettering made with a pointed tool while the concrete was wet.

The headstone of Manerva C. Goldsby, who died on November 11, 1912, contains an engraving of St. Francis Chapter No. 33 Order of the Easter Star, a chapter that no longer exists. Beneath the Eastern Star symbol is the etching of a "kingdom," which represents the kingdom of heaven.

The large stone of St. Francis Town Marshal Daniel A. Stanfield has a rounded top containing the word "Father" in raised lettering and an ivy-like vine etched on the front. The stone has "Murdered while in discharge of his duty as an officer. He was a Confederate veteran," etched on the front.

The oldest known headstone is that of Mary L. Seitz. She was born on September 1, 1861, and died on August 6, 1871. This headstone was recently uncovered after being overgrown with grass for several years.

This is a breakdown of burials by decade (marked graves):

1850s - 1 1930s - 20

1860s - 1 1940s - 20

1870s - 1 1950s - 20

1880s - 1 1960s - 16

1890s - 15 1970s - 12

1900s - 30 1980s - 12

1910s - 26 1990s - 28

1920s -30 2000s - 4

No dates - 8

1 Camilla Cox, Clay County, Arkansas: Cemeteries Volume 1 (Piggott, Arkansas: C.B. Cox, 1992).

Hall Cemetery is located southwest of the town 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.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF THOSE BURIED IN HALL CEMETERY

Stanfield

Daniel A. Stanfield moved to St. Francis from the Obion County, Tennessee/Fulton County, Kentucky area sometime before 1900. Stanfield served as Town Marshall for many years. One of his political opponents was Confederate Army soldier veteran, John R. Fields. Fields is buried in the opposite corner of Hall Cemetery from where Stanfield’s grave is located.

Stanfield was a Confederate veteran, serving as a teamster with the Fourth Tennessee, a unit that was engaged at Chickamauga. Newspaper accounts state that Stanfield was among the guards for Confederate President Jefferson Davis, and witnessed Davis’ capture during the twilight of the South’s last stand. While this has not been substantiated, historians have documented his unit was in the same area, where Davis was captured by the Union.

Stanfield was the first police officer killed in the line of duty in Clay County history. He was shot to death on 05 January 1914, by James Billips on the north side of St. Francis. Billips was wanted on burglary charges in Oklahoma. Stanfield had just turned 72 when he died. His headstone reads, "Murdered while in discharge of his duty as an officer. He was a Confederate veteran."

The Cruce Family

The Cruce family, of which several members are buried at Hall, were a prominent family in St. Francis. They were leaders in the United Methodist Church. Beulah Liddell Cruce once operated boarding houses throughout St. Francis. Her family, the Liddells (buried at nearby Gravel Hill Cemetery), were also prominent citizens of St. Francis, owning businesses and serving with the post office.

Goldsby

Issac N. Goldsby, a Confederate veteran, was one of the most industrious farmers in the area. He was the grandson of Edward Goldsby, a War of 1812 veteran. Issac Goldsby owned several acres of land and three homes. Goldsby served three years in the Confederate Army and fought in battles at Prairie Grove, Rector, Pilot Knob, and with Price’s Raid in Missouri. He was captured by the Union Army and later paroled at Vicksburg on May 1865.

His wife was Manerva Liddell. She was the daughter of William Liddell and sister of William Scott Liddell and Robert Liddell. W.S. Liddell was the first postmaster and opened the first mercantile business in St. Francis. She died on November 11, 1912.

The Landrum Family

The Landrums moved to St. Francis from Graves County, Kentucky, in 1903. Francis Lenora Landrum operated a boarding house in the south side of town. George William, Francis’ husband, worked in the timber trade. He died of massive injuries sustained when a tree fell on him as he walked near the St. Francis River in 1908 or 1909.

Two of their sons, Delbert Reed and Connie Clifton, worked for the St. Louis Southwestern Cottonbelt Railroad. Another son, Lochridge, worked as an auto mechanic in Pine Bluff. Their fourth son, Orban Carl, worked for a St. Francis merchant, D.R. Stanley, also from Kentucky. Orban Carl later worked for Dan Boyd, a member of a pioneering Chalk Bluff community family. Boyd owned a store in St. Francis that later relocated to Campbell, Missouri, just four miles west of the St. Francis River. Eventually, Orban Carl opened his own store, Landrum’s Ready-to-Wear, in Campbell. He is buried in Hall Cemetery.

Their daughter, Gladys, married Albert Bernice Winchester. The Winchester Family operated a sawmill and were among the town’s community leaders. Albert worked as a dredge boat hand, a carpenter, and a hunter. He also gathered mussel shells to sell to the button factory located at Corning in western Clay County.

The Lack Family

The Lacks originated in Halifax County, Virginia. The family’s surname contains spelling variations: Lax, Lacks, Lack, Lake, and Lakes. The patriarch, John Terry Lacks, served in a Virginia artillery regiment. He died during the Civil War. His wife and children moved to Obion County, Tennessee, to be near her brother, James Early Bradshaw. There are three accounts how they traveled to Tennessee: 1) They walked the entire way; 2) Bradshaw retrieved them from Virginia in a wagon; and 3) they took a train and were allowed safe passage by showing John Terry’s Masonic insignia.

The Lack Family moved to the Chalk Bluff community in the 1880s from Tennessee. John Terry’s children, daughter Sally Lack Flowers and son James Terry Lack, and their families, are buried at Hall Cemetery. Sally’s husband, Barney Flowers, was an official in St. Francis, and a census enumerator. He was responsible for collecting census data for Liddell Township in the town of St. Francis.

The Sietz Family

The Sietz Family was one of the first to settle in Chalk Bluff. The grave of Mary Sietz has the oldest headstone with her death date listed as 1871.

SIGNIFICANCE

Hall Cemetery represents the final burial place of many early settlers of St. Francis, and is significant to the history of the town. The close ratio of historic to non-historic burials, and the continuing use as a cemetery, precludes Hall 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 under Consideration D for cemeteries.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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

Goodspeed’s Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northeast Arkansas. 1889.

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

Piggott Banner. Historical Articles. June 14, 1963.

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

Winchester, Anne. "County Memorial Will Honor Police Officers," Piggott Times, January 31, 2001.

Winchester, ____. "Eastern Lodge is Oldest in Clay County," Piggott Times, November 15, 2000.

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

Miscellaneous

1900 Clay County Census, transcribed by Una Pollard.

Family Records of Anne Winchester.

Family Records of Martha Lack Winchester.