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Submitted: 3/13/09 • Approved: 4/13/11 • Last Updated: 1/21/14 • R167766-G0-S3
The oldest marked grave in the Heiskill Cemetery is dated June 7, 1863. There is no proof that this was the first burial in the cemetery, but that date clearly shows that the cemetery dates to at least the Civil War days. The cemetery is located on Heiskill Cemetery Lane .6 mile east of its junction with Arkansas Highway 126 between Buford and Buffalo in what once was the Laytonville community. The original road from Buffalo through Laytonville to Buford passed alongside the east side of the cemetery. The road was later moved west of the old road, and for many years Heiskill Cemetery Lane has been a small trail winding through a gated pasture.
It was long thought that the Heiskill Cemetery was named for the family that donated the land, but apparently it was named in honor of the first family to bury a family member there. A research of Abstract Records brought to light that the first Heiskill to own the land from which the Heiskill Cemetery came, made the purchase in 1902. John W. Herns purchased the 80 acres of which the Heiskill Cemetery is now part on May 1, 1860. No Heiskill had been shown as owning it prior to that date. On February 1, 1864, Herns sold it to Laban J. Beavers, who did not move to North Arkansas until 1869. Herns had abandoned his Arkansas land early in the Civil War and re-located to extreme north central Missouri where Beavers was residing at the time. It appears Beavers purchased the land, sight unseen. In March 1873, Laban J. Beavers and his wife Febe Ann sold the 80 acres, except for two acres for a cemetery, to David Jordan. That land transaction is the only one that has ever shown mention of the cemetery which is know as the Heiskill Cemetery.
The bulk of the burials in the cemetery are from the Beavers, Caststeel, Covington, Cunningham, Fletcher, Haney, Heiskill, and Sinor families, all of whom were early settlers in the area.
Photographed & surveyed by Max Parnell
Completed March 6, 2009
Contributed on 3/13/09 by maxparnell
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Record #: 167766