Listed in Arkansas Register of Historic Places on 12/07/06
Summary
Mount Zion Methodist Episcopal Church South Cemetery is the final resting place for early settlers of Vanndale, Wynne and the surrounding area, and Cross County, and is significant to the history of the area and county. Those buried at Mt. Zion Methodist Episcopal Church South Cemetery include businessmen and women; local, county and state elected politicians and officials; Methodist preachers; early physicians; and farmers. The combined experience of the men and women interred at Mt. Zion Methodist Episcopal Church South Cemetery helped settle and populate a viable and sustainable area of the state located along Crowley’s Ridge. The Mount Zion Methodist Episcopal Church South Cemetery, located in the Vanndale vicinity, Cross County, Arkansas, is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places under Criterion A with local significance for its association with the early settlement of the Vanndale area and Cross County. The cemetery is eligible for inclusion under Criteria Consideration D as a cemetery.
Elaboration
County and Town History
Cross County is Arkansas' 53rd county, formed on November 15, 1862, and is named for Confederate Colonel David C. Cross, a political leader in the area. Cross County was once part of the larger and older St. Francis County, and was actually formed with land from Poinsett and St. Francis counties, while St. Francis County was formed from Phillips County.
For a time, Vanndale served as the county seat of Cross County. At that time, it was a flourishing little city, located six miles north of the crossing of the Bald Knob and Knobel branches of the Iron Mountain Railroad, in Searcy Township, situated very near the center of the county, at the western base of Crowley's Ridge. When Vanndale was first made the county seat, it had a population of about 300.
For a period of time, a post office was established on the J. M. Vann farm, southeast of the present town site. Vann served as postmaster for many years, and the office was called Vanndale in his honor. Upon the completion of the Knobel branch of the Iron Mountain Railroad through Cross County, Vann moved his store and the post office to a point on the railroad, and that location continued, or retained, the old name of Vanndale.
Shortly thereafter, a very busy little town sprang up, with J. P. May erecting the first residence in 1882, and later he opened a store there. The new town soon attracted the merchants from Wittsburg, and Wittsburg soon became a village of small proportions. In 1884, the seat of justice was located in Vanndale, and its subsequent growth has been steady and rapid. In addition to its commanding court house erected in 1887-88, at an expense of $13,700, Vanndale boasted a large school, costing $1,000, a Methodist Episcopal Church with parsonage, two hotels and a stave factory.
The following firms and businessmen composed the commercial interests of the town: General stores, R. Block, Killough & Erwin, Applewhite & Co., J. M. Vann and W. R. Foote; grocery stores, J. T. Rolfe and F. M. McClaran; drug stores, May & Malone and T. D. Hare; stave factories, Applewhite & Co.; saw-mills and cotton-gin, J. T. Lewellen; blacksmiths, W. J. Woolf and Squire Oliver; livery stables, G. W. Griffin, carpenters, William Davis, D. E. Whitney and D. J. Randal; hotels, Vanndale Hotel, T. Rolfe, proprietor, and Johnson House, J. W. Killough, proprietor; physicians, Drs. J. D. McKie, J. B. Scarborough, T. D. Hare and J. L. Hare; real-estate agent, William Block; lawyers, T. E. Hare and O. N. Killbrough.
The timber and agricultural resources surrounding Vanndale were known to be rich and varied, and, in fact, Vanndale was a venerable point for people seeking new homes.
By the early 1890s, however, Vanndale had been overshadowed by a more vibrant railroad town to the south, Wynne, located at the junction of two branches of the Iron Mountain railroad. Consequently, the county seat was moved for the last time to Wynne.
Mount Zion Methodist Episcopal Church South History
Like Vanndale, the first settlements in the area were atop Crowley's Ridge, as the surrounding low-lying areas were prone to flooding from the Mississippi and St. Francis Rivers. Mt. Zion Methodist Episcopal Church South Cemetery has been in existence since at least 1848, which is when the Mt. Zion Methodist Episcopal Church South was organized just a few miles outside of Vanndale.
Between the years of 1850 and 1860, the value of real estate in Cross County was held very high. This section of the state was attracting rich and enterprising planters from the east and south who migrated to this area. These men and women improved large tracts of land, which soon became valuable and productive plantations. One of the first things the settlers in did in 1850, upon their arrival, was to organize the Mt. Zion Methodist Episcopal Church South and erect a church building. These same pioneers led the effort to form a new county, which was accomplished in 1862.
The historical impact of Mt. Zion Methodist Episcopal Church South is noted in A History of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, In the State of Arkasnass 1815-1835 by James A. Anderson,in which the church is credited for bringing Methodism to St. Francis County, the county from which Cross County was borne.
A number of the people who were known in the north part of this county in later years seem to have belonged to Mount Zion Church, in Cross County [formerly part of St. Francis County], where Mrs. Catherine Cross [wife of Col. Cross] was so influential. Among these people was Mrs. Permelia Fitzpatrick [buried at Mt. Zion], mother of T. O. Fitzpatrick who lived many years near Forest Chapel.
This was the first Methodist church in Cross County and, as was the case in many areas, an important part of the county's history. Charter members include: Rev. Thomas P. Hare, Rev. John Hare, Starkey Sharp Hare, Rev. Jacob Hare, Jacob S. Hare, David Hare, Renselear Vann, Colonel David C. Cross, Charles Maggett, John D. Maggett, Isaac N. Deadrick, James Lewellen, John Sullivan, William Barnes and Dr. Burley D. McClaran.
Mount Zion Methodist Episcopal Church South was quite the religious center of Eastern Arkansas in the early days, and many great revival meetings were held there. People came many miles to attend the meetings, some as far as the Missouri-Arkansas line on the north and the Old Military Road on the south. The Pineville settlement was settled by merchants and farmers who came with slaves, many from Fayette Co., Tennessee, and North Carolina. In 1847, a religious month-long camp ground meeting was held at the site of the Mt. Zion Methodist Episcopal Church South Cemetery, with a reported attendance of over 5,000 people.
Camp meetings became a part of the American pioneer experience as churches in the East felt a need and duty to minister to the settlers who usually had no access to local preachers or church buildings. Missionaries and circuit preachers were sent out to the frontier, sometimes to areas whose majority population consisted of murderers, horse thieves, and highway robbers, all of whom had fled to escape punishment. The missionaries and circuit preachers were also sent to settlements where the pioneers had grown complacent about religion and education, due to the hardships endured in the wilderness. However, neither of these population scenarios appears to be the case with the settlements atop Crowley's Ridge.
The circuit preachers and missionaries visiting the Vanndale area endured great hardships to conduct these camp meetings, often riding many miles through wilderness, seeing no human being, sleeping alone in the forest, climbing mountains and swimming streams.
In 1850, the settlers built a church, named Mount Zion, to accommodate the area. Colonel David C. Cross, for whom the county is named, had donated 18 acres near his home for the site two years prior to the church’s construction, at the time when the church was organized. The building committee consisted of Judge Sam Hinton, John D. Maggett, David Hare, Jacob Hare, Thomas Hare, Isaac N. Deadrick and Renselear Vann. The building was a frame structure, measuring 30 feet by 48 feet, constructed of yellow poplar lumber sawed by James Lewellen, with four white columns across the front. The construction work was done by slaves owned by John D. Maggett. An old family Bible in which the names of the slaves who worked on the church are recorded is now in the possession of Sammie Hare, a great-grand-nephew of Rev. Thomas P. Hare. Reverend Hare was a charter member of Mount Zion. Sammie Hare is also the great-grandson of John D. Maggett, the man who provided the slave labor.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, farming on a large scale was practically suspended. Two companies of soldiers were formed a mile from Mount Zion at the old Camp Ground Spring, where church services were held prior to construction of the church building. Company A, 5th Arkansas Infantry Regiment, CSA, was formed in June 1861, with David C. Cross being elected Colonel. In 1863, the 29th Arkansas Confederate Cavalry, McGhee’s Regiment, was formed, with Captain Isaac N. Deadrick commanding. On June 20, 1865, 193 officers and 1,964 enlisted men were paroled at nearby Wittsburg.
In September 1870, the White River Conference of the Methodist Church was organized at Mount Zion with Bishop John C. Keener presiding. Over 20 preachers and delegates attended along with many laymen. Pastors present were William Alexander Cobb, James Walkup, John Rhyne, W. M. Galespey, C. H. Gregory, Burwell Lea, K. W. Coleman, Benoni Harris, John M. Steele, J. P. Webb, James L. Denton, J. H. Cox, H. A. Barnett, A. B. Bennick, Josiah Williams, John W. Patton, William T. Noe, Moses C. Morris, E. H. Ellis, George Shaffer, R. G. Britton, J. H. Hall, and H. T. Blythe. Laymen present were J. M. Hanks, Henderson McFerren, W. F. Dale, A. T. Holloman, R. S. Bryant, J. F. Smith, J. O. Roberts, W. H. McMurtry, W. M. Allen, James Clark Brookfield and Lewis Williams. Early Cross County historian, Jewell Sigman Hare, wrote of her mother Mary Jane Lewellen Sigman telling how the conference members were fed at the noon and evening meals by the neighborhood communities. Members entertained in the home of the Rev. Thomas P. Hare also had their horses cared for and their laundry washed for them. The Reverend’s home, constructed in 1859, still stands at Vanndale and is now owned by his great-grandson, Jacob Hare Turner.
In 1963, a granite monument was placed on the site by the Historical Commission of the North Arkansas Conference of the Methodist Church. The committee that erected the monument was composed of Ben Horne, Luther Sigman and Thomas Baker, all of the Forrest City District Men's Fellowship.
The Helena Branch of the St Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern railroad was completed along the western base of Crowley’s Ridge in 1882. This resulted in many people moving down the ridge to the new town of Vanndale, which was situated near the railroad. In 1885, the Methodist Episcopal Church membership relocated from Mount Zion to Vanndale, and at the same time, a new cemetery, the Vanndale Cemetery, was established.
In 1934, the sons and daughters of the pioneers who established the church and cemetery organized a cemetery association. H. L. Lessenberry served as the first president and Jewell Sigman Hare served as its secretary. The association sponsored an annual "Pioneer Day" for several years. On August 8, 1940, a marker was placed marking the site of the old church with the last two living members of the church, Mrs. Grace Hare Sneed and Mrs. Nannie Miller Legg, in attendance.
Cemetery History
David C. Cross donated 18 acres of land to the Mt. Zion Episcopal Church when it was organized near his home in 1848. The Methodist Episcopal Church has been assessed taxes on this land since 1869.
Cross settled in what was then southern Poinsett County in the 1840s. Born in 1812 in Gates County, North Carolina, he was listed in the Fayette Co., Tennessee, 1840 census, and was in Mitchell Twp, Poinsett Co, Arkansas, by the1850 census. By 1850, he was listed as owning $14,000 worth of real estate and 53 slaves. By 1855, he was reported to be the "most extensive landholder" in Poinsett County and one of the wealthiest men in the state. Cross was a stockholder in a company interested in constructing a rail line from Memphis to Little Rock, and so he began buying large tracts of land.
Cross, for whom Cross County was named, took an active part in politics and other leadership roles, and he also offered land to be used for a county seat. The land he donated for the county seat was located near his home site, and was named Cleburne in honor of his friend Patrick R. Cleburne, who was killed in the Civil War at the Battle of Franklin, in Tennessee. Wittsburg was suppose to be the temporary county seat until a permanent county seat was named, but due to the War, the first county business was conducted in Pineville at the home of Dr. Burley D. McClaran, who served as the first County Clerk, from 1863-1865. After the war ended, the commissioners named Cleburne the county seat in 1865, but in 1868, the county seat was moved to Wittsburg. When the railroad bypassed Wittsburg in 1882, the river port town declined rapidly as businesses moved to the railroad towns of Vanndale and Wynne. Vanndale was named county seat in 1884, and the first courthouse building was constructed there. The county seat was once again moved in 1903 to Wynne where it has remained.
In June 1990, the members of Wynne United Methodist Church requested that Mt. Zion Methodist Episcopal Church South Cemetery be deeded to them so that they could retain the responsibility of upkeep. The North Arkansas Conference of the United Methodist Church agreed to transfer title to the trustees of the First United Methodist Church, Wynne, Forrest City District, for the purpose of maintaining the cemetery in an appropriate manner and to establish a permanent endowment for perpetual care. A survey was conducted at this time to ascertain the boundaries of the 18.6 acres belonging to Mt. Zion Methodist Episcopal Church South. The cemetery is surrounded by pasture land owned by Sam McGuire, Jr., and his mother, Lucile McGuire, and over the years the property lines had blurred. Ingress and egress to Mt. Zion Cemetery has been over and across the McGuire lands for more than 150 years. In 1994 a settlement agreement was reached and deeds were exchanged. The McGuire's received 11 acres of wooded property in return for a perpetual easement and the Methodist Church retained ownership of 7.6 acres, which contains the cemetery.
Biographical Sketches of Selected Persons Buried in the Mt. Zion Methodist Episcopal Church South Cemetery
James L. Applewhite (1844 – ????)
Born in Tennessee, Applewhite migrated to Arkansas with his family sometime prior to 1862. He was a partner with John Q. Thomas in a grocery and dry goods store known as Applewhite & Thomas, located at Wittsburg from 1870 – 1886. They moved their business to Vanndale, as did many others, when the town sprang up due to the Helena Branch of the Iron Mountain Railroad coming through in 1882. His father, John Applewhite, was one of three commissioners appointed to select a county seat when Cross County was formed in 1862. Other Applewhites buried at Mt. Zion Methodist Episcopal Church South Cemetery include: his brother, Johnnie E. Koin Applewhite (1849 – 1867); his son, Shelton Applewhite (1869 – 1875); and his wife, Virginia Ella Applewhite (1852 – ????)
Rev. William Alexander Cobb (1817 – 1873)
Born in Granville, North Carolina, Cobb arrived in LaGrange, Fayette Co., Tennessee, around 1838 which is about the time he became a licensed Methodist preacher. He preached on circuits in Alabama and Arkansas before being transferred to the Indian Nation, where he preached and had charge of the mission schools. In 1862 he came back to Arkansas and settled about two miles southeast of the present village of Vanndale. He took charge of the Poinsette Female Academy, which became known as Cobb’s Boarding School. He died in Forrest City, St. Francis County, Arkansas. His wife, Susan Brodie Cobb (1828 – ????), and son, Wilbur Fiske Cobb (1844 – 1864) are also buried at Mt. Zion Methodist Episcopal Church South Cemetery.
Charles M. Dobson (1850 – 1861)
He is the son of James N. Dobson and Margaret Leathers Dobson. His father, James, was the first Sheriff of Cross County, serving from 1863 – 1866. James lived in Wittsburg many years, operating Dobson General Store. He was appointed postmaster of Wittsburg on July 1, 1856.
David Fitzpatrick (1813 – 1873)
David Fitzpatrick was born in Virginia. According to the biography of his son, Thomas Oliver Fitzpatrick, his family settled three miles west of the present site of Vanndale on October 31, 1855, having moved from Lauderdale Co., Tennessee. David Fitzpatrick served as a Representative to the State Legislature from Cross County from 1866 – 1868. His wife, Pamelia Hargrove Fitzpatrick (1820 – 1881) is also buried here. There is a discrepancy between her tombstone and census records, which give her year of birth as 1818. Their daughter, Marietta Fitzpatrick Ford (1850 – 1916) is buried near her parents’ graves.
Eliza C. McFerrin Gilliland (1812 – 1871)
Born in Rutherford Co., Tennessee, she was the daughter of James W. McFerrin and Jane Campbell Berry McFerrin (1786 – 1876). She is buried beside
her son, Samuel Gilliland, Jr., (1854 – 1871). Her husband,Rev. Samuel Gilliland, Sr., was a Methodist Episcopal Church South preacher.
George W. Griffin (1838 – 1900)
Born in Georgia, Griffin came to Arkansas in 1854. He served two terms as County Treasurer and also was a Justice of the Peace. He fought in the Civil War for the Confederacy. His daughter, Laurah (1878 – 1886), is buried here as well.
Ede Ann Brown Hare (no dates given)
She was the wife of Judge Starkey Sharp Hare, who was serving as a judge when the county courthouse in Vanndale was built in 1888. Other Hares include: Rev. John Augustus Hare (1812 – 1857), who was born in Hertford County, North Carolina, and his wife, Mary B. Ware Hare (1821 – 1900), the daughter of Samuel Dabney Ware (1787 – 1846) and Elizabeth V. Ware. John and Elizabeth Hare were married in Shelby County, Tennessee. Rev. Thomas P. Hare (1827 – 1883), a charter member and preacher at Mt. Zion Methodist Episcopal Church South, is also buried here. His is the only grave in the cemetery not oriented east/west; it faces south.
Samuel Holstead Hinton (1816 – 1866)
A native of North Carolina, he moved to Fayette County, Tennessee, in 1834, where he bought land and farmed. He married Mary Matilda Walton, also a North Carolina native, in March 1836. In 1852, the family moved to Arkansas in what was then Poinsett County. Hinton was county judge of Poinsett County at the time Cross County was formed from Poinsett. Mary Hinton died July 1887, but there is no record of her grave at Mt. Zion Methodist Episcopal Church South Cemetery, so it is likely that she is buried at Vanndale Cemetery. Both were members of the Mount Zion Methodist Episcopal Church South. He was a member of the building committee for the Mount Zion Episcopal Church built in 1850. His son, John Wesley Hinton (1847 – 1866) is also buried here, as is his daughter, Emma Elizabeth (1850 – ????).
Harriett Kibler (1828 – 1868)
Wife of Dr. W. A. Kibler, who was one of the earliest physicians in the county. Dr. Kibler was with Company A, 5th Arkansas Infantry Regiment, CSA, the first company of soldiers that formed at Camp Ground Spring in June 1861.
McClaran, Dr. Burley Duke McClaran (no dates given)
A charter member of Mt Zion Church, he was one of the first physicians to locate in southern Poinsett Co. He was elected as the first county clerk for Cross County when it was formed from Poinsett Co. in 1862. He served two terms, from 1863-1866. His daughter, Sallie Willie (1855 – 1857), is buried here.
Mourning Corrine Bellenfant McClaran (1797 – 1881)
Family history says that her mother, Louise, had been to visit her husband’s family in Marseille, France, and died during childbirth at sea en route home. Louise was buried at sea and the child was named “Mourning” because of the incident. The family was living in Rockingham, North Carolina, at the time but moved to Middle Tennessee at some point. Mourning married Franklin McClaran in Williamson County, Tennessee, on April 5, 1815. A family letter written in 1868 by her daughter, Julia McClaran Brookfield (1838 – 1909), was written from Cleburne, Arkansas, which was the first county seat of Cross County. Her son, Francis Marion McClaran (no dates given), is buried at Mt. Zion Methodist Episcopal Church South Cemetery, but there is no tombstone marking his grave.
Alexander V. Rolfe (1832 – 1874)
He was born in Mecklenburg Co., Virginia, and came to Arkansas with is family around 1857, settling at a town called Pineville. He is related to John Rolfe, who married Pocahontas. His wife, Martha Dormer McClaran (1835 – 1860), is buried here. She is the daughter of Franklin S. McClaran and Mourning Corrine Bellefant McClaran. Their children, Willie Samuel (1854 – 1863), Earnest Franklin (1857 – 1870), and Dormer Adrienne (1860 – 1914) are all buried at Mt. Zion Methodist Episcopal Church South Cemetery.
William Wirt Ware (1836 – 1858)
Born in Amherst Co., Virginia, to Samuel Dabney Ware & Elizabeth V. Dawson Ware. He was the brother of Mary B. Ware Hare, who was married to John Augustus Hare.
Stephen Washington ( 1794 – 1866)
Born in Southampton Co., Virginia, Stephen Washington was living in Fayette Co., Tennessee, by 1840, according to the 1840 Census. By 1860, he was living in the Mitchell Twp., Poinsett Co., Arkansas, working as a farmer, and living with overseer Alexander Futrell (no dates given), who is also buried at Mt. Zion Methodist Episcopal Church South Cemetery.
Statement of Significance
The Mt. Zion Episcopal Church, South Cemetery is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places under Criterion A with local significance for its association with the lives of persons significant in the settlement of Vanndale and surrounding towns (Pineville and Cleburne among them), and in the history of Cross, Poinsett, and St. Francis counties. As one of the oldest cemeteries in this part of Cross County, Mt. Zion Methodist Episcopal Church South Cemetery has recorded this history of the area through the many significant burials of the early prominent settlers, judges, politicians, soldiers, Methodist preachers and businessmen. These settlers organized one of the earliest Methodist Churches west of the Mississippi River, Mount Zion Methodist Episcopal Church South, which was established in 1850. The men who settled here were instrumental in the creation of Cross County in 1862. Mt. Zion Methodist Episcopal Church South Cemetery is also being nominated under Criteria Consideration D for cemeteries.
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