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Submitted: 12/12/21 • Approved: 12/12/21 • Last Updated: 12/15/21 • R1406013-G0-S3
*Nelson Cemetery
(Old Nigger Hill Cemetery)
Georgetown, Arkansas
List updated December, 2014
Legal description: NE, NE, SW, Sect.18, T6N, R4W
Earliest listed grave: 1887
Last listed grave: Active
GPS Listing: (link)
Arkansas Archeological Survey site #: 3WH0647
The first settlement in White County dates from 1789 with the Spanish Grant #2416 to Francis Francure at Georgetown, early known as Nigger Hill, containing 1,361 arpens at the mouth of the Little Red River. This was the second settlement in the state following Arkansas Post. Cloie and Leister E. Presley of the White County Historical Society prepared a listing of the cemetery in 1967. Fifteen years later, Sam and Pauline Cleaver and Pearl Johnson of Georgetown updated the information, then the Cleavers updated again in June 1999 in cooperation with the White County Historical Society. Nelson Cemetery is located a mile and a half west of Georgetown on Highway 36.
"Nelson Cemetery (the land) was given to the people by the Nelsons," Pauline Cleaver said in 1999. "The Georgetown Cemetery was used when the town was cut off by floods between Nelson Cemetery and Georgetown. I do believe the Georgetown Cemetery is the oldest because of the Gosnell dates… Pearl Johnson for years was a midwife and the only ‘doctor’ as they called it for the town most of the time, so she knew people and a lot of history. Our cemeteries are beautiful! Kept up. Come and see them."
Leroy and Ellen Blair of the White County Historical Society visited Nelson Cemetery March 2, 2001. They found 11 tombstones that were not on the last list. They also made a few minor adjustments in the list. "Due to the depressions and mounds and how the graves are scattered, I would guess that are hundreds of unmarked graves in this cemetery," Leroy Blair reported. "The dates on markers do not reflect Georgetown’s age, nor do the ones in Georgetown Cemetery."
(See Oldest Existing Community in Arkansas for more information.)
Where known, maiden names are listed in parenthesis.
If you have corrections or additions to this list or other information on this cemetery, contact the White County Historical Society, P.O. Box 537, Searcy, AR 72145
www.argenweb.ner
Contributed on 12/12/21 by hawkinsdonna48
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Record #: 1406013