The oldest marked
grave in the cemetery is that of Sara E. Morrison, the two-year-old daughter of
J. M. and Eliza Morrison. She died January 14, 1836, shortly after the Treaty of
Dancing Rabbit Creek.
The following
information from “Dig Into The Past with Lucia” (Mary Lucia George
Holloway), printed in the North Mississippi Herald on May 24, 1956, gives
more information on The Beginning.
“March 25,
1852: Dr. William Simmons purchased from the New York Land Company the
whole of Section 9, Township 11, Range 4, West for the sum of $1900.00.
Deed Book 3, page 74. Chancery Clerk’s office, Water Valley.”
This was the
Section in which both the First and the Second Presbyterian Church was
located.
“October 26,
1867: Dr. Simmons and his wife, Charlotte V. Simmons, deeded to the Water
Valley Presbyterian Church a certain ten acre tract of land fully described
in said deed and lying and being situated in section 9, township 11, range
4 west of Yalobusha County, Miss. Deed book 5, Page 290, Chancery Clerk’s
office, Water Valley, MS.”
“November 1,
1867: The Elders of the Presbyterian Church deeded to E. C. Davidson, eight
acres of the above ten acre tract for a sum of $1950.00 ‘Containing ten
acres of land except two acres along the east boundary of said above
described lot upon which the graveyard is located.’ Deed Book 5, page 291,
Chancery Clerk’s Office.”
“February 2,
1869: Peter Johnson, A. G. Buford, and J. T. Bankhead, a committee
appointed by the Session of the Water Valley Presbyterian Church to
transfer the title of the ground known as the Presbyterian Grave Yard to
the Corporation Authorities of the town of Water Valley, did execute and
deliver to: John H. Wilson, Mayor, Alderman: B. H. Collins, T. J. West, H.
Gibbon, Jessie Addington, M. A. Ross of the town of Water Valley and to
their successors in office a deed to ‘All that piece or parcel of ground
now known as the Presbyterian Grave Yard to be forever owned and kept as a
Public Grave Yard for the town of Water Valley. [Signed] A. G. Buford,
Peter Johnson, J. T. Bankhead’. Deed Book 5, pages 249-250, Chancery
Clerk’s office.”
“Courtesy of
Lorene Walker from her book: ‘Highlights of Water Valley’.”
NOTE: Oak Hill
Cemetery was surveyed and cataloged a number of times over the years. Edith
McLarty and Frances Turnage made a most notable effort in this work in 1976.
Their work, provided to the Yalobusha County Historical Society, was retyped and
republished in February 1991. Mr. Mike Worsham of Oakland, MS., Vice-President
of the Yalobusha County Historical Society, has incorporated the previous work
with a complete update of the entire cemetery. It is the sincere wish of this
Society to gather, maintain and share this part of the history of Water Valley
and Yalobusha County, Mississippi, with those who are interested with the past
and the future of this enterprise.
KEY: Dates
are given numerically as month, day, year; e.g. 05-09-1932 = May 09,
1932. Relationships: a/o = aunt of; c/o = child/children of; d/o =
daughter of; f/o = father of; h/o = husband of; m/o = mother of; s/o =
son of; sis/o = sister of; u/o = uncle of; w/o = wife/widow of.
Information in brackets [ ] is data supplied in this typing. Information
in parenthesis ( ) was typed from the 1976 document.
[Signed] James S. Allen, President
Yalobusha County Historical Society
P. O. Box 258
Coffeeville, MS. 38922
September 2000
OAK HILL
CEMETERY
WATER VALLEY, MISSISSIPPI
CONFEDERATE MONUMENT
“Sacred to the dead of Company F, 15th Regiment,
Mississippi Volunteers”
Battlefields: Fishing Creek, Shiloh, Resaca, Kenesaw
Mountain, Peach Tree Creek, Atlanta, Franklin,
Petersburg, Va.
Killed In Battle
Capt. R. A.
Bankhead, 1st Sergt. T. B. Hale, Sergt. J. H. Reese, Sergt. John
Shillinger, Sergt. E. S. Trask, Corporal C. E. Bankhead, Corporal James
Long, Corporal John E. Young, Corporal W. T. Wilson, Pvt. M. V.
Boydstun, Pvt. Willie Buford, Pvt. B. P. McMinn, Pvt. Jesse Macon, Pvt.
W. L. Meece, Pvt.Thomas Moore, Pvt. T. A. Shillinger, Pvt. T. V. Smith,
Pvt. James Wamack, Pvt. William Wamack, Pvt. Dock Wardlow,
Died In Service
Pvt. Julius
Adams, Pvt. Joe Brinkley, Pvt. William Collins, Pvt. Wm. Fitz Gerald,
Pvt. R. N. Johnson, Pvt. Henry Moore, Pvt. J. F. Pittard, Pvt. W. E.
Reese.
The following marker is
located in the central part of Oak Hill Cemetery near the Sexton’s Office.
The inscription reads as follows:
“The Mississippi
Orphans Home was established by the Mississippi Conference and the North
Mississippi Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South in 1894 and
located one mile Southeast on a site donated by Water Valley citizens. There
it remained until destroyed by fire in 1904. Afterwards local families kept
the children in their homes until other accommodations were found. The Home
was moved to its present location in Jackson in 1906. In 1963 it was
officially renamed Methodist Children’s Home. While the home was here sixteen
children died and are buried on this plot. The cornerstone of the main
building erected in 1897 is imbedded at the base of this marker. North
Mississippi conference Historical Society, April 1967.”
The cornerstone referred to above
Mississippi
Orphans Home
M.E. Church South
Erected 1897
CHILDREN OF THE METHODIST ORPHAN HOME
DeSOTO, Maude
FARNED, Lee, born 03-02-1897, died 04-22-1904
FOX, Wilson, born 07-04-1905, died 09-07-1905
GREEN, George, born 06-19-1901, died 04-13-1904
Infant boy, born 05-__-1903, died 08-__-1903
KNIGHT, James, born 1901, died 1906
LAZENBY, Ildo, born 07-23-1901, died 04-__-1904
LOWE, George Milton, born 11-18-1898, died 07-22-1899
McCARLEY, Nora Lucille, born 08-24-1904, died 07-11-1905
MUNEY, Susie Odel, born 11-23-1901, died 04-14-1904
NEELY, Thomas, born___________, died 08-16-1905
NEWCOME, Joseph, born 05-23-1905, died 06-12-1905
ROGERS, Stella, born 1890, died 1906
STRICKLIN, James Franklin, born 1905, died 1906
STRICKLIN, William, born 1903, died 1906
WYNN, Roy, born 10-26-1887, died 07-10-1901
On the east
side of the center section of the cemetery south of the Sexton’s Office there
are four markers identifying the graves of four Unknown Confederate States Army
Soldiers. They were buried there during The War of Secession.
On the west side
of the center section of the cemetery facing the road are twenty-nine markers
that read: “Unknown U. S. Soldier.” These are markers of Union soldiers buried
there during The War of Secession.
Copyright © 2000. Yalobusha County Historical Society, Inc.
P. O. BOX 258
COFFEEVILLE, MISSISSIPPI 38922-02598
