BETHEL CEMETERY

 

CRAWFORDSVILLE, ARKANSAS

CRITTENDEN COUNTY

 

 

 

SURVEYED:     Nov. 25, 1993   By: Paige and Pauline Miller of Earle, Ark.

 

LOCATION:      About 1 miles west of Crawfordsville, Ark. across the railroad,

Turn left.  This is on the site of the old Methodist Church, the

Bethel Methodist Church, oldest Methodist Church in Crittenden County, Ark.

 

(Document located at Crittenden County Library - Marion, Arkansas - 2001)

 

 

AMBUHL, Caroline, Feb. 14, 1861 – June 20, 1908, (Our Mother)

 

 

COLE, William Howard, Aug. 4, 1936 --- June 30, 1937

 

 

CRAVENS, D. W., Oct. 27, 1862 --- Feb. 8, 1902

 

 

FUHRER, M. Alex, born in Germany 1851 --- June 24, 1889, (a postmaster 189?)

 

 

GIBSON, Fannie C., Jun. 6, 1846 – May 10, 1899, (Our Mother)

 

 

HARDY, Allie, Sep. 22, 1860 --- May 1, 1900, (wife of J. H. Hardy)

 

 

HARDY, M. L., Mar. 1, 1890 --- Oct. 3, 1895, (dau. of J. H. & A. Hardy)

 

 

HART, John, Apr. 21, 1859 --- Dec. 13, 1901

 

 

HART, Williford Leonard, Jul 19, 1902 --- Apr. 7, 1911, (son of John & Emma Hart)

 

 

KNOTT, Mollie W., Feb. 15, 1858 --- Aug. 9, 1902, (wife of Dr. S. J. Knott)

 

 

KNOTT, Sallie Wilkin, Feb. 16, 1883 --- Mar. 8, 1883

 

 

KNOTT, Dr. Simon J., Oct. 14, 1850 --- Feb. 10, 1912, (Woodman of the World)

(Dr. Simon Joseph Knott, son of J. W. Knott and Sallie W. Miller, died in Shelby County, TN of Myocarditis. Mrs. Sallie W. Miller Knott, daughter of Simon Miller and Martha Rivers, died Feb 4, 1917 at the age of 89 and was buried at Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis. She was a widow.)

 

 

KNOTT, Simon Rivers, born ? ---died Jun. 1, 1900

 

 

KNOTT, W., Dec. 6, 1896 --- Jun. 1, 1900

 

 

LANDRUM, Charlie, Jan. 27, 1879 --- Feb. 6, 1917

 

 

LANDRUM, James B., 1868 --- 1931

 

 

LANDRUM, Linnie C., May 11, 1864 --- Jul. 23, 1950, (My Mother)

(Wife of James B. Landrum)

 

 

LANDRUM, Susie Hart, Feb. 29, 1884 --- Aug. 20, 1953

(daughter of John & Emma Hart)

 

 

LEWIS, Oscar Perry, Feb. 26, 1937 – Jul. 10, 1943

(Son of Marion Lewis and Olean Palmer of West Memphis. Died of uremia and ruptured liver from an accident he suffered on July 8, 1943 when he was struck on a street in West Memphis by a motor type street grading machine. Death certificate gives his date of birth as Feb. 20, 1937. Buried by Citizens Funeral Home.)

 

 

LOCK, Mrs. M. J., 1817 --- Mar. 3, 1908, (In Memory of our Mother & Grandmother)

 

 

McGUIRE, F. H., Sep. 17, 1848 – Sep. 18, 1927, (Brother)

 

 

MOSBY, Drucilla Davis, Feb. 24, 1915 – Jan. 9, 1920, (Daughter)

 

 

MOSBY, Drucilla Davis, Feb. 18, 1870 – Apr. 11, 1943, (Mama)

 

 

MOSBY, Joseph Hobson, Aug. 10, 1870 – May 24, 1945, (Daddy)

 

(Mosby surname correction (from Mosley) submitted by Joe Mosby, grandson)

 

 

NEELEY, Annie Glenn, Nov. 7, 1875 – Jun. 9, 1900, (wife of C. H. Neely)

 

 

NEELY, Charlie Joseph, Aug. 2, 1898 – Oct. 12, 1898, (son of C. H, & Annie C. Neely)

 

 

PARKS, Joseph, died Mar. 21, 1907, age 5 yrs.

 

 

PHILLIPS, Cecil Hickman, Apr 30, 1905 - Aug 9, 1909 (son of Jacob Ditzler Phillips and Daisy M. Parsons)

 

 

PHILLIPS, Daisy M. Parsons, Jan. 18, 1884 – Jul 29, 1908 (wife of Jacob Ditzler Phillips)

Jacob Ditzler Phillips drowned when a government launch, The Pelican, went down at Knowltons Landing, Arkansas, during the high water of 1927.

 The Pelican was doing levee relief work on the Mississippi River when the levee broke and sucked the boat through the break, April 20, 1927.

Twenty-nine people went down with the boat, but Ditzler was the last body recovered, five months later on September 16, 1927.

His body was brought to Memphis and laid to rest beside his mother, Mildred Evelyn Jackson Phillips, at Elmwood Cemetery.

His father was buried at Gibson Bayou Cemetery at Earle, AR. Ditzler Phillips and Daisy Parsons were married Sep. 9, 1903 at Lansing, AR.

 

 

PHILLIPS, Mildred, no dates (daughter of Jacob Ditzler Phillips and Daisy M. Parsons)

 

(The Phillips graves are believed to be unmarked. Information given by Betty Canestrari of Germantown, TN)

 

 

RAINEY, James W., Jun. 6, 1889 – Apr. 15, 1942, (Daddy)

 

 

RASBURY, Mary Glenn, Nov. 13, 1818 – Mar. 26, 1902,

(Mother of Dr. S. J. & Mollie Knott)

 

 

ROLLEY, Catherine C., Jul. 28, 1850 – Jun. 6, 1930, (Mother)

 

 

ROLLEY, Clair Norman, 1891 – 1946, (double marker with Mary Hart Rolley)

 

 

ROLLEY, Eloy F., May 1, 1870 – Jun. 3, 1923, (son of Serdon & Catherine Rolley)

 

 

ROLLEY, Mary Hart, 1892 – 1954, (double marker with Clair Norman Rolley)

 

 

ROLLEY, Serdon, Oct. 29, 1846 – Dec. 21, 1926, (Father)

 

 

SMITH, Andrew T., Jul. 23, 1874 – Dec. 23, 1886, (son of W. T. & F.C. Smith)

 

 

SMITH, Charles F., Jan. 11, 1877 – Mar. 19, 1939

 

 

SMITH, Carl. E., Jul. 21, 1926 – Mar. 12, 1930

 

 

SMITH, J. H. (Ham), Aug. 1, 1913 – Jul. 25, 1937, (My Husband)

 

 

SMITH, Monlie, Jan. 16, 1879 – Nov. 2, 1880, (son of W. T. Smith)

 

 

SMITH, W. T., Feb. 11, 1845 – Oct. 10, 1885, 40 yrs, 1 mo., 29 dys (Husband)

 

 

THOMAS, Claude A., Apr. 22, 1890 – Jul. 4, 1900, (son of J. A. & Ida E. Thomas)

 

 

WEAVER, Talmage, Oct. 13, 1899 – Nov. 3, 1901

 

 

WEBBER, Isabella A., Jun. 13, 1860 – May 2, 1936, (wife of George A. Weaver)

 

 

 

It was noted at the time of the survey that the cemetery was unclean, badly overgrown and had been vandalized.  It was also noted that an additional 4 or 5 markers had been turned over, writing facing the ground.  These stones were not included in this survey.

 

 

Added Information - 2002 - by Deb Yates

Taken from "A History of Crittenden County Arkansas", Crawfordsville Chapter

By Margaret Elizabeth Woolfolk:

 

Crawfordsville's Methodist Church is one of the county's oldest serving a predominantly white congregation.  It dates from 1840 when Methodists worshipped in a small log structure on the banks of Alligator Bayou, about a mile west of the present church site on Bay Ferry Road and south of the Union Pacific railroad tracks.

            James Albert Alexander is credited with organizing the church which was called Bethel.  Alexander at the time was a circuit rider. Three acres for a log church and a cemetery were donated by a Baptist, Gideon Green McGhee, in 1856.  The church also was used as a school.

            Following the Civil War, Bethel church was in a state of disorganization and a long period of inertial followed.  Crawfordsville was developing, and members felt the church should be relocated there.  In 1883, Dr. and Mrs. J. R. Jenkins deeded the land for the present church site on Bay Ferry Road for $50 and in 1884, a small frame church was erected.  This structure was remodeled in 1902 and used until 1917 when it was sold to a Negro congregation and moved south of the Union Pacific railroad tracks.  It now serves as edifice for the New Hope Missionary Baptist Church.

            Bethel Cemetery still remains at the site of the first Methodist church.  Confederate veterans who were buried there included Privates William Guerrant Wash, William Lawler, John Alexander, Polk Landrum, Adolphus Fountain Crawford, Peter Daugherty, Benjamin Thomas May, Tom Smith, Allen Ingram, James Robert Alexander, and John Madison Fullwood.  Others were Captain Baxter Claiborn Crump, Dr. Ben Novell, and Dr. John W. Guerrant.

            Since the opening of Crittenden Memorial Park, on the western outskirts of Marion, some remains have been moved from both Bethel and Guerrant Cemeteries to that location.