The Willard Pioneer Cemetery was opened in 1854 as the North Willow Creek Cemetery. Then in 1859, the city was renamed Willard (in honor of an early LDS Apostle, Willard Richards) and the cemetery came to be known as the Willard Cemetery. In 1869, a new and much larger cemetery was opened just to the north, and this cemetery came to be known as the Old Willard Cemetery. Eventually, it was renamed as the Willard Pioneer Cemetery.

The Willow Creek Cemetery was dedicated in August 1854 with the burial of five-day old John Memorial McCrary, Jr. The cemetery became "inactive" when the new cemetery (the Willard Precinct Cemetery) was opened. The Pioneer Cemetery, however, continued to be used up to 1888 anytime a family did not want to purchase a plot in the new cemetery.

Unfortunately, the location of the Pioneer Cemetery was directly in the path of flood waters. In 1923 and then again in 1936, floods washed most of the cemetery down the hill, carrying remains as far west as the Interstate Highway. All of the remains that could be located were gathered up and reinterred in a common grave near the center of the Pioneer Cemetery. The few headstones that were found were set up again, but their current location has nothing to do with the original location of the graves or bodies. Following those floods, a water-retention basin was built just south of the cemetery to prevent further flooding.

There original records for the Pioneer Cemetery were reportedly stored in the basement of the old Willard Jail. They were destroyed when someone cleaned the old building and threw out all of the "garbage" stored there.

The cemetery is recompiling the old burial records. If a family has information that a family member was buried in either cemetery, but that individual is not listed in Find A Grave, that family is asked to contact the cemetery with the information. It will be added to the cemetery records.