The cemetery is along the west side of O Street from William Street about 400 feet north to a ditch just before the end of the street. Although many records and more than one local funeral home treat Shield(s) as a separate cemetery, the dividing line between the the Shield(s) section and the rest of Patterson Memorial has become obscure to the point that a cemetery walker cannot accurately discern between the two. The rows of tombs have lost alignment and become jumbled in places due to efforts to maintain the cemetery area and to recover and attempt to restore some tombs that had sunk into the ground and become damaged. Shields was originally in the northern part of this area and Patterson Memorial in the southern part closer to William Street. Some transcription records have mingled the records not only for these cemeteries but for the distinct Home Industrial Cemetery and Willing Workers Cemetery, as well.



Community volunteers periodically perform organized maintenance. There are in-ground burials in the wooded area at the back of the Shield(s) section that are thought to be slave burials. There is much history here that has yet to be documented in a public manner.



Local records and knowledge concerning the cemeteries are somewhat jumbled. Depending upon to which source one goes, there are one, three, or four cemeteries in the area of Patterson Memorial Cemetery: Patterson Memorial, Shield(s), Home Industrial, and Willing Workers. Each of these has been called a cemetery in both official records and by funeral homes. Some local authorities say, however, that all are sections of one overall cemetery called Patterson Memorial Cemetery. Yet another explanation given is that Patterson Memorial and Shield(s) are one cemetery, with Shields originally being a distinct section, and that Home Industrial and Willing Workers are separate cemeteries. Home Industrial Cemetery and Willing Workers Cemetery are in distinct areas from each other and from Patterson Memorial/Shield(s) Cemetery. Home Industrial Cemetery is in line with Patterson Memorial but is north of the drainage ditch near the end of O Street; the much less used Willing Workers Cemetery is in an area east of Home Industrial and to the right as one approaches the end of the street.