The earliest marked graves in this cemetery date to the late 1850s, although settlement of the Mound Prairie community occurred much earlier. Mound Prairie, once home to a Baptist college known as Mound Prairie Institute, declined during the latter part of the 19th century. The cemetery is one of the few physical reminders of the town, and many of the early settlers and their descendants are buried here, along with several Confederate veterans. Some of the graves are marked with rock cairns or hand-hewn stones.