Ferguson
Cemetery
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| Ferguson
Cemetery | |
Ferguson Cemetery is located in Howell County in Missouri, in the city of Willow Springs. It is located along Business 60-63 across from what is now the Willow Springs YMCA. The location is in section 30, township 27N, range 9W of Howell County.
In 2002 the City of Willow Springs assumed maintenance of this cemetery and it is now well maintained. However, this has not always been the case. A local resident who once owned property adjacent to the cemetery told me that he had seen broken headstones thrown into the brush along the edges of the cemetery. In searching those areas I did find discarded pieces of headstones which I cleaned and returned to the cemetery. Ferguson cemetery has been inactive for many years.
Both Howell County Missouri Cemeteries 1795-1987 and Ella Horak's Willow Springs and Surrounding Communities 1869-1969 Centennial indicate that the cemetery was known as Hogan Cemetery in the past. Consequently, it is also sometimes referred to as Ferguson-Hogan Cemetery. The City of Willow Springs now refers to it as Ferguson Cemetery.
In August of 1880 the land where Ferguson Cemetery is located was sold by Elizabeth Ferguson, a member of a family which greatly influenced the early history of Willow Springs, to the trustees of the Methodist Episcopal and Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Those trustees acquired the property in order to build an church and establish an adjoining cemetery.
From examining the headstones it appears that the earliest burial in the cemetery was in 1881. However, it must be pointed out that there are obviously many unmarked graves in Ferguson Cemetery.
It appears that in later years the Cumberland Presbyterians of the congregation acquired land in Willow Springs for a separate church of their own. Two additional Methodist churches were also established in the city and it appears that the original church at the Ferguson Cemetery location was not in use after 1893. The church building itself no longer exists.
Many thanks are due to A. Claude Ferguson for sharing his research into the history of Ferguson Cemetery..