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Submitted: 3/18/10 • Approved: 12/18/12 • Last Updated: 12/21/12 • R299473-G0-S3
History of Johnstown Memory Garden Cemetery
Jackson County Arkansas
Memory Garden Cemetery is located in the extinct community of Johnstown, nine miles east of Newport Arkansas. It is an expansion of the Old Martin Cemetery located 200 yards south. The site was once the schoolyard of the Martin Common School from about 1879 to 1924. The first burial was a Mrs. Kirksey and her stillborn baby a few yards east of the old 100 year Oak tree that served as first base for the ball playing children. Years of neglect for both cemeteries lost most of the temporary grave markers but the bushes and vines always housed a large covey of quail. The site was on private property of the estate of James Martin and John Cook. The heirs allowed free burial though out the years without cost or permission from anyone. Gravesites were selected at the discretion of the volunteer gravediggers usually made up of friends and relatives.
Mrs. Blanche Camp recognized the growing problems of the two cemeteries and established the “Johnstown Cemetery Association” as a legal entity and named the new cemetery Johnstown Memory Garden but retained the name Old Martin Cemetery for the other one. The Martin and Cook heirs donated the land to the association. Later, James R. Rutherford and heirs of the Martin Estate donated additional land just west of Memory Garden for future expansion.
The cemeteries have been cleaned and cared for since that time. The association sells grave plots and accepts “memorial” donations for perpetual care.
Information, research and background kindly provived by Bobby Huey Bhuey456@wmconnect.com
18 December 2012
Contributed on 3/18/10 by eagle12953
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Record #: 299473