Confederate veteran M.J. Fox transferred a portion of his family property to Methodist Church trustees C.A. Wade and G.J. Dean in 1904 for fifteen dollars. In the same year, Fox and the Amis family donated land for the adjacent cemetery to the church. It included the Fox family burial plot and the 1895 grave of Fox's sister Elizabeth Neusum, the earliest known grave in Caney Cemetery. The properties were believed to be named for nearby Caney Creek. A bequest from community resident Hubert Langley in 1972 provided for long-term maintenance. There were 153 graves in 1997, some with original bois d'arc markers, and Caney Cemetery remains a record of the community.