Cypress Grove Cemetery
Also known as Valley Farm Cemetery
Drew County, Arkansas, USA
African American Cemetery
The Cypress Grove Cemetery is located on what was once the Hollywood Plantation, established during the 1840s by Dr. Jonathan Martin Taylor. At its peak, the plantation covered over 10,000 acres with 83 enslaved African American laborers. According to oral history, after Abraham Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation in 1862, Taylor ordered that the slaves working on the Hollywood Plantation be freed. Some stayed on as hired servants to the remaining Taylor descendants, some traveled north with the help of Taylor and his resources, and others made homes elsewhere in southeastern Arkansas.
The Cypress Grove Cemetery was used for at least two decades into the twentieth century and shows evidence that local Black families belonged to fraternal organizations during that time. Two of the gravestones state that those buried beneath them were members of the Lily of the Valley Chapter 1007 of the Mosaic Templars of Winchester. Another gravestone states that its owner was a member of the Sweet Home Chamber 2620. Membership in such fraternal organizations offered insurance for grave markers and burial plots, which African Americans had no control over during slavery. This African American cemetery is one of many in southeastern Arkansas, which still has a large African American population today.
African American Cemetery
The Cypress Grove Cemetery is located on what was once the Hollywood Plantation, established during the 1840s by Dr. Jonathan Martin Taylor. At its peak, the plantation covered over 10,000 acres with 83 enslaved African American laborers. According to oral history, after Abraham Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation in 1862, Taylor ordered that the slaves working on the Hollywood Plantation be freed. Some stayed on as hired servants to the remaining Taylor descendants, some traveled north with the help of Taylor and his resources, and others made homes elsewhere in southeastern Arkansas.
The Cypress Grove Cemetery was used for at least two decades into the twentieth century and shows evidence that local Black families belonged to fraternal organizations during that time. Two of the gravestones state that those buried beneath them were members of the Lily of the Valley Chapter 1007 of the Mosaic Templars of Winchester. Another gravestone states that its owner was a member of the Sweet Home Chamber 2620. Membership in such fraternal organizations offered insurance for grave markers and burial plots, which African Americans had no control over during slavery. This African American cemetery is one of many in southeastern Arkansas, which still has a large African American population today.
Nearby cemeteries
Drew County, Arkansas, USA
- Total memorials7
- Percent photographed100%
- Percent with GPS100%
Winchester, Drew County, Arkansas, USA
- Total memorials15
- Percent photographed73%
- Percent with GPS0%
Pickens, Desha County, Arkansas, USA
- Total memorials47
- Percent photographed79%
- Percent with GPS0%
Winchester, Drew County, Arkansas, USA
- Total memorials2
- Percent photographed0%
- Percent with GPS0%
- Added: 1 Jan 2000
- Find a Grave Cemetery ID: 53625
Cemetery Photos
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