[ArkansasSlim]

This is the Bryan Family Plot in the Hammond Cemetery. The foot stone for Harriet reads "MOTHER" and the one for Rufus reads "SON".

[ArkansasSlim]

This tombstone is also in the Hammond Cemetery and is the next space south of the Bryan Mother/Son plot.

[ArkansasSlim]

Originally Posted by ArkansasSlim

I was first told about the Hammond Cemetery a couple years ago and finally found it west of Benton, Saline County, about a mile north of I-30. At that time it was covered with underbrush but when I finally got time to map and document it a few weeks ago someone had cleaned it up and placed a USA National Flag at the Lee grave and a CSA National Flag at the Hammond grave. The cemetery is named for this Hammond family and although Francis has the only marker, I suspect more of his family is buried in some of the 15+ unmarked grave depressions. I also learned that in the fall of 2002 grave robbers had dug into the Hammond grave and stopped, for some reason, at 80 centimeters, before reaching the remains. That may be the reason his marker is setting at an angle at the east end of the dug-out depression.

These are the photos of the Hammond Cemetery I tried to send several days ago. You are looking up hill at the back of Lee's marker, over the Bryan Mother/Son plot, and can see the CSA National Flag at Hammond's grave. Then in the wider view of Hammond marker you can see the edge of the hole that was dug. Out of view on the right is Claussen Bryan's grave and a baby grave I'll post later.

[ArkansasSlim]

We are still in the Hammond Cemetery. This is a small marker between the Bryan Family Plot and Hammond's grave.

[ArkansasSlim]

This is our last trip to the Hammond Cemetery. This small marble tombstone was broken in half, horizontally, and someone had tried to patch it with concrete and had smeared over and covered some of the data. Although the top half was standing on the bottom half, it was not attached so I took it to my truck to clean up and then returned it to it's proper place. The first photo is as I found it, the second on the tail-gate of my truck, and the third back to it's original position. When I got it cleaned up I found the "F" of "Feb" was missing and had been in a corner of the break which had been broken off and the gap filled in with concrete.

[Dutchman01]

Originally Posted by ArkansasSlim

Happy you enjoyed it. Arkansas is one of the nations best kept secrets. I prefer the Ouachita Mountains, but I guess it is because I have spent so much time there.

I like em' both but I consider the ozarks home.

[ArkansasSlim]

I don't spent ALL my time in cemeteries Sometimes we find things when driving from cemetery A to cemetery B, i.e. the stash of big, 4WD, ATVs about which I cannot get a response from law enforcement, which tells me it's none of my business This cross is in east Pike County on the Caddo Gap Road at the fork on top of the mountain where the right goes toward the Lee Cemetery and the left goes down the mountain to the Shawmut-Murfreesboro Road. I have been passing it for years and finally took time to stop for a photo. I have talked to two county historians and neither knew anything about it. In fact, didn't even know it was there, but I understand that because it is not where "normal" people would be driving anyway.

[ArkansasSlim]

Some time ago someone asked that since we spend so much time in the boonies, did we ever get into a bad situation, and my response was that we didn't go into places that was too far to walk out. Wellll, I was out alone last week and got into an unexpected situation. I was on a narrow mountain road and to turn around I had to climb a bank. So, I put the truck into Low-4WD and 1st gear and got turned around. But, when I got back on the road the transfer case would not get out of Low-4WD. No cell phone service and about 10+ miles to the nearest land-line, if anyone was home. Long story short; I drove two hours to Little Rock in Low-4 and was turning 4,000 RPM the whole trip. Got it fixed and went back there Tuesday.

I was in there to take these photos. Several years ago I was given a lead on a single grave in east Pike County, and after a long search we found these three graves and still don't know if the lead was for another single grave we didn't find, or my contact was mistaken and these are the ones referred to. As a hobby, a group of men from nearby Amity clean up and maintain neglected cemeteries and agreed to add this one to their list. One of the photos shows the trail they cut through the woods and the other shows the three graves after they cleared the brush off them and placed artificial flowers at the head of each one. We didn't notice it when we first found them, but after clean-up, we can now see the grave in the middle is a child.

[ArkansasSlim]

An Arkansas Geological Commission Information Circular published in 1932 states; "Cinnabar [mineral which produces mercury] was first found, but not identified, in the Little Missouri River area in Sec. 1, T 7s, R 26 W, in April, 1930, by Crown Cox, a farmer boy, and in the Antoine Creek area, in Sec. 28, T 6S, R 23W, in May, 1930 by D.F. Short, of Amity."

Crown and members of his family built their own retort and continued to mine and smelt cinnabar even after the "boom years".

This cemetery and his grave is a few miles east of where he discovered the mineral.

[ArkansasSlim]

John J. Cox was (I think) the great uncle of Crown Cox. And John J. was a brother of one of my great grandfathers, Dennis Biggs Cox. An interesting genealogy story here that drove me nuts for a while. Their family name was "Cocke[s]", but when they both enlisted into the Union Army during the Civil War, it appears the enlisting officer spelled their name phonetically, "Cox", and they and their descendants continue to use "Cox" as their family name. This tombstone is also in the above Hicks Cemetery.