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Submitted: 12/8/21 • Approved: 12/9/21 • Last Updated: 12/12/21 • R1405230-G0-S3
*Beeler Cemetery
Plainview, Arkansas
This Cemetery is also known as: Beals or Cullum Cemetery.
GPS Location: 615732 - 907506
Arkansas Archeological Survey site #: 3WH0623
The last update of this cemetery was: February 13, 2021. By Leroy Blair
Current status of cemetery: This cemetery is no longer being used.
Point of contact for cemetery. Donnie Stevens 501-729-3204.
Beeler Cemetery
Photo by Leroy Blair
Directions to cemetery
To get to the cemetery from Searcy go out Davis Drive to HWY 13 turn right go across the Red River Bridge. Turn left on Salem Church Road to Moccasin Bend Road. Turn left and go to the grass sod farm. Moccasin Bend Road will turn to the right. Don’t turn – go straight down a dirt road through the sod farm. You will come to a small creek. After you cross the creek turn at the next road to the left. It will run by the wood line for a short distance. It will then enter the woods as a logging road. After you enter the woods you will need an ATV or walk. The cemetery is about one-quarter mile into the woods. You will have to look very carefully or you will miss it.
For more information about this cemetery go to the end of the listing
This is one of White County’s most historic and forgotten cemeteries. Beeler’s Ferry was once an important crossing on the Little Red River. Today the area is marked by the basement of the Beeler house that was built about 1840, and the cemetery where members of the Beeler family are probably buried. The Batesville-Little Rock road that was built after Searcy was established as the county seat in 1837 crossed the Little Red due north of Searcy, near a spot called Moccasin Bend. The road had sufficient use that by May of 1839 the county court granted a license to John Beeler for a ferry across the river. Beeler died only four years later but his widow Hannah continued to operate the ferry. The Beeler house was located on the north side of the river on the SE ¼ of the NW ¼ of Section 23. The house faced east and was no doubt a way stop for travelers. The house must have been substantially built because it had a basement or full cellar under it. The hole of the basement remains today, marking one of the oldest located home sites in the county. About one-fourth mile west behind the house site is the cemetery. The cemetery has several graves marked with rocks, as well as some 20 graves marked with tombstones. The oldest marked grave is 1860, with the last date on a marked grave being 1923. When the cemetery was visited by members of the White County Historical Society in 1986 and again in 2000, it was not easily accessible by vehicle. The fence was down, and no attempt at upkeep was being made. But at the direction of White County Judge Bob Parish, a gravel road to the cemetery was built in the summer of 2002. The cemetery was subsequently fenced. Cloie Presley of the WCHS described the cemetery as "located on the Hans Keller farm in the N ½ of SW ¼ Section 23, Township 8 North, Range 7 West. The whole farm is overgrown and unattended and it is almost impossible to find the cemetery unless the exact location is known." Helping her prepare the listing on April 6, 1986, were her husband Leister Presley, W.E. Leach, Hubert Epperson and "Mrs. Frederick." Leach, who was the Historical Society president, stated in an article for the 1987 White County Heritage that he thought the Beelers were buried here. Mrs. Presley noted that there were six graves listed by Jane Goodwin of Newport eight years earlier which the 1986 group could not find. They are indicated on the following list. This cemetery has been called Beal Cemetery and Cullum Cemetery. Beals and Cullums are buried here. But Jim Lowery, a White County Historical Society member who has lived at Moccasin Bend for some 60 years said in 2001 he had "never heard it called anything but Beeler Cemetery." He pointed out that the graveyard was located on the Beeler plantation. Beeler’s Ferry was the site of a Civil War skirmish June 6, 1864, witnessed by 18-year-old Nancy Cullum, as recounted in the 1987 White County Heritage and March 17, 1998, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (page 4E). Descendents of Nancy Cullum still lived in the area in 1999. According to a taped statement from Albert Lowery of Judsonia, descendent of Nancy Cullum Lowery (and father of Jim Lowery), there are others buried in this cemetery – including four Yankee soldiers that Nancy saw killed in the skirmish with Confederates on the Batesville - Searcy road in front of the Joe Hoofman farmhouse. Albert Lowery told his son Jim that Nan helped bury the Federals. He also stated that he knew Samuel J. Lowery, William Calvin Lowery (son of Samuel J.), Bruce H. Cullum and a child of Albert and Leo Lowery who died December 22, 1923, are buried here. The section of the Searcy-Batesville Road and Beeler Ferry was abandoned with the construction of a bridge a mile and a half downstream about 1915.
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Contributed on 12/8/21 by hawkinsdonna48
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Record #: 1405230