DUANE
The story
According to oral history, pioneer farmer and Confederate widow Sarah Hoggard gave a plot of her land for the burial of an African American child who died while traveling through the area with his family after the Civil War. Though there may be earlier graves, the first marked burial on this site if that of Francis Reynolds, who died in 1865. Sarah and James Hoggard's daughter Matilda married Benjamin Reynolds, whose father operated the first cotton gin and grist mill in the area, and his family name became as prominent among the graves as that of the Hoggards.
In 1899 the "Hoggard Graveyard" was set aside in a deed to the Hoggard family land. Reynolds was formally added to the cemetery name in 1984 after a Reynold's descendant deeded additional land. The cemetery is a chronicle of area pioneers. (2000)