Hugh Nelson, a native of Tennessee, donated the original two acres of this burial ground. Born in 1821 and dying in 1884, he is connected to the earliest dated stone here, which marks the grave of his infant son Hugh, who died in 1864. Earlier burials were marked only with field-stones. A number of children's graves date from a dysentery epidemic in 1884. Known at one time as Walnut Creek Cemetery, it is the burial place of many area pioneers, including members of the Cruse, Helm, Nix, Osburn, Parker, and Peden families, and contains over 700 known graves.