In 1863, William Davis, the son of a plantation owner and a slave woman, came here with his wife, Mildred Brand, and their children and became among the area's first black landowners. After his daughter died in 1870, he sold five acres of land to the township for this cemetery. Early burials included Amariah Joy, the township's first white settler, for whom Joyfield Township was named. In 1887, the township built the town hall here.