Oak Hill Cemetery Montgomery Co. Arkansas

Oak Hill Cemetery is the oldest cemetery in the Oden area of Montgomery County in western Arkansas and is located on private property on Randy Godbehere's farm off Highway 88 about a mile south-east of Pencil Bluff.  The property was originally owned by Will (William?) Scott. Turn south on dirt road go about 1/2 mile and the cemetery is to the west at the back of the pasture. The cemetery has about seventy graves with twenty-one readable headstones.  It is not maintained but is protected by a fence that keeps the cattle out.  Pencil Bluff obtained its name from the nearby slate bluff over looking the Ouachita River and is located nine miles west of Mount Ida.

David C. Evens	Dec 31 1845 - Mar 7 1927	Gone
Eliza J. Evans	Mar 3 1848 - Sep 14 1917	The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want
Maude May	d. Oct 10 1880 age 25 days	daughter of D. C. and Eliza Jane Evans
Infant son	Sep 4 1884 - Sep 12 1894	of D. B.& M.C. Evens
*Isaac Fryar	1799 -1868
*Nancy G. Fryar	1793 - 1870-80
Whistling Bill Fryar	1876 - 1947
Mary Garrett	1861 - 1926	At Rest
John Hill	1850 - 1881
Dr. B. D. Johnson	d. Aug 18 1883, aged 61 years ?16 days	husband of S. M. Johnson (Mason emblem)
Susan M.	d. Dec 9 1877 age ?56 years, 8 months	wife of Dr. B.D. Johnson
Joseph T.	d. Apr 15 1878 20 years 9 months ?11 days	son of B.D. & Susan M. Johnson Farewell
William A.	Aug 21 1880 - Oct 30 1880	son of J.J. & R.S. Leonard
*Bartley Singleton	1815 - 1860-70
*Martha Singleton	1827 - 1897
Mrs B.D. Taylor	d.  Oct 8 1892, age 67 years
B.D. Taylor	d. Apr. 28 1892, age 67 years
Lizzie Taylor	1867-1892	Mother
Mary E. Tabor	Feb 24 1899 - Oct 13 1899
Rev. T.L. Tabor	Feb 18 1850 - June 20 1919	At Rest
Mary A. Wilson	June 9 1856 - Apr 22 1913	wife of Rev. T. L. Tabor
Aniel S. Wicke		Farewell (?Daniel Wicker)

Footstones
S.G.L.
E.J.E.  - Eliza J. Evans
D.C.E.- David C. Evans
E.M.C.
L.E.B.
M.C.
SEMS

* new headstones.

The grave marker for Bartley Singleton's death date shows 1860-1870. His actual death date was Sept. 16, 1869 - typhoid fever. His son, Marion Franklin, born Feb 8, 1866, died July 1869, also typhoid fever.

There are Chapman's  buried here and the Kelly's were!
Solomon P. Chapman d. May 14 1866 and his wife Mary Whitt Chapman d. 1885. In 1859 Solomon and family homesteaded land about three miles north east of Oden.

John Kelly and his wife:  John Kelly b. 1809 in S.C. and Nancy Kelly b. 1809 - 1894 came to Montgomery County in 1886 via Mississippi and Alabama were buried at Oak Hill.  They were disinterred and moved to Macedonia Cemetery. We have been unable to trace the date of the move. The main reason for the move was because the cemetery is on private property and it was becoming difficult to maintain the graves and the cemetery. They lived with James Henry and Margaret Kelly, their oldest son and daughter-in-law.  Jim (J.H.) Kelly was a confederate veteran who was wounded at Antietam (they never got out) and held in a Union POW camp at Rock Island Illinois for the remainder of the war. John B. Kelly, the oldest son of Margaret and James Henry Kelly, was the County Judge of Montgomery County and responsible for Public Works and the JP court. His brother, Henry Wade Kelly, was a JP in the 1910s-20s and the Mayor of Oden in the 1950s. 

The old Kelly double monument is missing. 
Why? Reference: Montgomery County News Nov. 19, 1998 article by Ellen Galloway. 
The question about the double Kelly monument missing from the Oak Hill cemetery is one I can answer.  In the mid-fifties, my grandfather and other relatives paid a visit to the cemetery on the Scott farm and I went with them and we found the cemetery totally overgrown and most of the headstones knocked over by cattle. Wade Kelly, Zeff Singleton, Kirby Singleton and others got together and cleaned the cemetery up and put up the fence that still stands.  Stones that could be replaced were and others were laid at the head of the grave if they could not be made to stand.  The large Kelly monument was a problem as it was broken into at least 3 pieces.  My grand dad decided to take it home with him and see if it could be repaired by Manuel Norman, the local monument man.  Evidently he couldn't repair it and the stone remained at the Kelly home in Oden and there it lies today. The old Kelly home (built by Ike Chapman, older brother of June Kelly) is now owned by Lois Kelly Mickey who lives in Illinois but visits Oden once or twice a year. Posted 30 May, 2001. Information courtesy of Dennis Warren

Who are the people buried in the cemetery?
They were the pioneers who came to the area by covered wagon crossing the Mississippi and Arkansas Rivers.  According to the second volume of Tippah County, Mississippi History, Isaac and Garrett Fryar and families left to go to the gold rush in California. They came to a cross road in Montgomery County, Arkansas and no one could read the sign so decided to build a cabin and put in a crop and dig the first well in the area. Two years later "a preacher" who could read came by but they had decided to "just" stay in Montgomery County.  Isaac Fryar Jr. homesteaded the land east of Oden.  Isaac and Nancy Goodner Fryar were the parents of eight children including Henry  F., Thomas and William.  William married Elizabeth Darcus Singleton who was the daughter of Bartley Singleton and Martha K. (Stevens) Singleton.  Henry's son was William Henry "Whistling Bill" Fryar. The 1880 census shows John Hill son in law, 26 years, married to Mary, 22, living with Thomas, 56, and Pollie (Shirley) Fryar.  Around the Oden area if you are related to a Fryar, Singleton, Willhite (Wilhite) or Goodner you are related to one and all.

William Henry Fryar soon became known as "Whistling Bill" Fryar and for a good reason.  He was arrested for going into Indian Territory under a fictitious name and was bought before Fort Smith's "Hanging Judge" Isaac Parker. The Judge wanted to hear him whistle and selected the bluegrass tune Fishers Hornpipe. The Judge was overwhelmed and said case dismissed and "Old Bill he just whistled his way out of court that day".  He was also a story teller, had a photographic memory and a great fiddle player.  Lorenzo Benton Willhite who was born at Waters (Pine Ridge) and later moved to Keota , Haskell County, Oklahoma taught him to play the fiddle and he played at dances around Western Arkansas and Eastern Oklahoma.  When "Whistling Bill" did do manual labor which was not very often he work he was good at hoeing cotton and was much sought after.  "Whistling Bill" Fryar, always wore a hat, didn't have any permanent residence but visited relatives in the area especially across the river from Oden at Hog Jaw which got its name from a tramp who wandered through the area and as he went from house to house, everyone fed him hog jawls, (the fatty part under the pig's jaw)  so he called that area Hog Jaw when he left.  "Whistling Bill" Fryar died 11 July 1947 and he was the last one to be buried at Oak Hill. The oldest marked grave is 1860.

The 1870 Federal Census for Polk Township, which is the Oden area shows families:
#145 Henry Fryar, a farmer, and Lucinda E. (Hickey) Fryar the parents of William Henry aged three and John J. Fryar born in May. 
#133 B.D. Johnson, 48, a physician born in Tennessee and his wife S.M., 47, born in N.C. and son Joseph T. aged 13 born Illinois.
#134 D.C. Evans, 25, a farmer, born in Tennessee and his wife Elias J. 22, born in Illinois. 
#142. Martha Singleton.
 #147 Thomas Chapman, 29, a farmer,  born in Alabama and his wife Manila, 30, born in Mississippi. 1910 census shows John P. Chapman, 65, born in Alabama, father born in N.C and mother S.C.  In 1859 Solomon and Mary Chapman homesteaded about three miles north east of Oden with their sons including John Pinckney b. 1844 who married Nancy Emailine Hickey and Thomas Newton and others.  Mary died in 1885, aged 77, and is buried at Oak Hill beside her husband Solomon who died May 14th 1866.  There was log cabin built at Oak Hill in 1874 on Dale Evans land and John Chapman later bought this and moved it to his farm for a barn.  Contact Charles Chapman if you have any additional information on the Chapman, Kelly and Hickey families.

References:
Montgomery County News Dec 28 1972.  Article by Willis Holt.
Federal Census for Montgomery County, Arkansas.
Montgomery County: Our Heritage published by the Montgomery County Historical Society 1986.
Paul Whitehouse & Diane Singleton local residents of Oden, Montgomery County, Arkansas.
Headstone information transcribed by myself March 1998 from the cemetery.

If anyone has any information on Oak Hill Cemetery please contact me so we can share the data with the genealogical community.  Comments and corrections welcome. You can submit queries on Montgomery County, AR families at the the Montgomery County ArkansasGenWeb project.

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