After Mariah “Aunt Rye” Long died in 1918, Emil and Anna Wellsandt offered a parcel of their land on this site for use as a public burial ground. Several others were buried there in 1918, most of them victims of the influenza epidemic, and the Bailey County Cemetery Association was formed that year. The cemetery served primarily the northern part of the county. The “hill-top” area of the cemetery was established in 1950 for the burial of indigents. Many early Bailey County settlers are interred there, as are a number of war veterans. Neglect and vandalism spurred the defunct cemetery association to reorganize in 1996, and the Bailey County Cemetery remains a chronicle of the area's pioneer settlers and their descendants.