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Goad Cemetery
White County,
Arkansas

Goad Cemetery is a large old burying ground in Denmark Township,White County, Arkansas. The United States Geological Survey
map (Huff Quadrangle, 1965) indicates that it is located in the Northeast Quarter of the Southeast Quarter of the Southeast Quarter
of Section 12 in Township 10 North, Range 6 West. It is located at the western line of Jackson County, Arkansas, and many of the
families represented in the cemetery lived in Jackson County.
One way to locate the cemetery is to begin in the southern part of Pleasant Plains, in Independence County, at the point where
Arkansas Highway 157 leaves U.S. Highway 167. (This section of U.S. Highway 167 is also Arkansas Highway 87.) The county line
between Independence and White Counties (also the line between Townships 10 and 11 North in Range 6 West) is about 2.3 miles
southeast of this point in Pleasant Plains., Follow U.S. Highway 167 southeasterly to the Midway community, then due south. About
1.8 miles below the line between Independence and White Counties, turn left (or east) off U.S. Highway 167 onto a gravel road,
which leads directly to the cemetery. This road runs almost due east about 1.2 miles; after crossing a narrow bridge near the head
of Glaize Creek, there is a sharp curve to the right, and the road (on the line between White and Jackson Counties) continues south
about .2 mile, ending at the gate to Goad Cemetery. The cemetery is surrounded by a barbed wire fence and has a barbed wire
gate. There is a seldom-used road through the cemetery. A large part of the enclosure is north of the road, and I found only one
grave (with a 1979 death date) north of the cemetery road. Near the entrance to the cemetery are the concrete steps of a building
which seems to have vanished without a trace. (Perhaps a one-room schoolhouse from years ago?) (Additional information
indicates that these steps are from the former Independence Baptist Church building. The building of that church is now on land
obtained from Lloyd Winningham, and is located on Highway 167 just north of the turn-off to the Cemetery.
I have never been more impressed in my 25 years of cemetery inventorying than I was by Goad Cemetery. Though it is not very
well maintained, trees have been cut down and there is no dense vegetation which would prevent locating gravestones. The
cemetery contains about eight family plots with rock walls around them, some as high as three feet. Unfortunately, about half of
these elaborately walled lots have no markers, except unlettered fieldstones or sandstones. The Goad family plot is in the western
part of the cemetery, as are other early family burial plots. The graves of Rev. John Goad and his wife are surrounded by a rock
wall. The north wall of this plot forms the south wall of another plot, which is also fully walled--one grave space deed and about 24
feet long. There is another rock partition and still another walled plot north of the second one. This third plot is only about eight
feet long. In the three rock-walled grave plots, only the spaces occupied by the remains of Rev. John Goad and his wife have
markers with lettering. Also impressive are the walled grave plots of the families of Elder J. J. Goad and G. W. Swick--each of
which is about 20 feet in length. Another impressive aspect of this cemetery is the existence of about 15 fully rocked individual
gravesites--none of which bears any identification. The rock structures covering the individual graves vary from about 1 to 2.5 feet
in height. Three of the graves are capped with single stones covering the entire grave spaces. (Unfortunately, shifts in the rocks
which support the large stones have resulted in breaking the huge rocks on top.) These three graves are in a row, north to south.
There is also a massive brick covering for another grave space. There are many graves marked with unenscribed rocks, and a
large number of graves are marked with concrete blocks buried in the ground. It would be a task in itself to count the number of
graves which are marked but have no legible identification in this extremely large and old cemetery.

After the above information was wrote I visited this cemetery several times. A lot has changed since 1979
Attached is what I found on my visit.
Twenty-two years after James Logan Morgan wrote the above report, I visited Goad Cemetery with his wife Ellen Blair. On February 26, 2001, we found 42 graves that were not listed in Morgan’s inventory. The directions I used to reach the cemetery: "From Denmark take Highway 167 north about 1 ¾ miles to the first gravel road to the right. Take this road, which ends at the cemetery. The barbed wire gate mentioned in the 1979 report has been replaced with some three-inch metal pipes made into an entryway and gate a very nice job of welding and building. It is painted white. You can easily see it before you get to it. The cemetery was very clean and well cared for… I found about 100 cement blocks set in the ground even with the top of the ground that mark graves but with nothing on them. There are also a lot of depressions that are probably unmarked graves." I returned to the cemetery on December 31, 2004, and double-checked the information below by inspecting the information on each tombstone. At the time, I was chairman of the Historical Society’s cemetery committee and a member of the board of directors for the White County Historical Society.

Leroy "Lee" Blair
White County Historical Society

www.argenweb.net

Photo;
Peg Herriage
paperdoll1913@gmail.com

Contributed on 1/14/20 by hawkinsdonna48
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Record #: 1290770

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Submitted: 1/14/20 • Approved: 1/14/20 • Last Updated: 1/17/20 • R1290770-G0-S3

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