John Whitaker, born in 1761 in Pitt County, North Carolina, was a Revolutionary War soldier who established this cemetery. He and his second wife, Winnie, sold their land in Pitt County in 1801 and migrated to Rowan County, where Winnie died, then to Mulberry, Tennessee, and finally to Madison County, Alabama. An early settler in the Bend of Paint Rock, Whitaker arrived there as a widower with seven children, later married Susan Graham, and had 11 children with her. He was the first person buried in the cemetery after his death about 1835. Many Whitakers have lived in Madison, Marshall, and Jackson Counties, and families buried here include Whitaker, Keel, Stapler, Ikard, Seaton, Vann, and Webster. In the cemetery's early years, families maintained their own family plots, and as late as the 1990s this remained the only method of upkeep. On June 11, 1999, the Whitaker Cemetery Perpetual Care Trust Fund was established, and the rural family cemetery is maintained by family, friends, and generous donations, remaining a family cemetery as John Whitaker intended. Listed on the Alabama Historic Cemetery Register in 2010