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Submitted: 12/21/21 • Approved: 12/22/21 • Last Updated: 12/25/21 • R1408033-G0-S3
*Gilbert Cemetery
Russell, Arkansas
List updated March 27, 2005
Legal description: NE, SE, NE, Sect.34, T9N, R5W
Earliest listed grave: 1877
Last listed grave: Active
GPS Listing: (link)
Arkansas Archeological Survey site #: 3WH0662
This site, also known as O’Neal Cemetery, is located at the west side of the city. From Hwy 67N, take the Russell exit (60) and enter the city from the east. Crossing the railroad tracks, turn left onto Hwy 367 and go south to Vine Street; turn right on Vine and continue until it dead ends; turn left on Second Street and follow it until it ends, then turn right and continue approximately 150 yards. The cemetery is up on the hill to the left from the house that is there.
This cemetery was originally listed November 8, 1981, as "O’Neal Cemetery," by Cloie and Leister E. Presley of the White County Historical Society and published in the 1988 White County Heritage. It was fenced and had a gate March 17, 2000, when Tommy H. Treadway of the White County Historical Society updated the Presleys’ work. "The cemetery is maintained and most of the stones are in good shape," he reported. "Some sunken spots were seen, apparently old gravesites." He said he was told the cemetery was first called Gilbert because the first individual buried there was a small child whose last name was "Gilbert". A one-year-old boy named Gilbert was buried here in 1877.
The records were updated again December 7, 2000, by Historical Society member Leroy Blair. He found 19 mounds or depressions that were probably unmarked graves, nine graves marked only with rocks and 11 other graves with funeral home markers that were no longer legible. Blair was chairman of the WCHS cemetery committee and a member of the board when he visited the cemetery again January 7, 2005, and made additions and adjustments to this list.
The cemetery was visited in June 2004 by Historical Society member Scott Akridge, who noted that it is on "a very old road" from Searcy to Grand Glaize. "Carter Cemetery and another cemetery at Bald Knob are also on this old road. This road predates the railroad and thus likely was a pre-Civil War route as well." Blair, who is chairman of the Historical Society’s cemetery committee and a member of the Board of Directors, visited the cemetery again on the last day of 2004 and double-checked the information below against what he saw on the tombstones, making some corrections and other adjustments.
The gravesites are alphabetized here for convenience but were listed numerically by the Presleys as indicated in parenthesis following each name. They reported seeing "at least 30" unmarked graves.
If you have corrections or additions to this list, or other information on O’Neal Cemetery, contact the White County Historical Society, P.O. Box 537, Searcy, AR 72145.
www.argenweb.net
Contributed on 12/21/21 by hawkinsdonna48
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Record #: 1408033