Documentation of Magnolia Cemetery's origin is scarce, as is often the case with early African American cemeteries because of the status of Africans and African Americans in pioneer and plantation society. Oral history holds that farmer E.P. Murray gave the land for the cemetery, and the oldest marked grave is believed to be that of former slave Isham Murray, who was born in 1805 and died in 1880. His wife Laura reportedly was buried with their white slaveowners. At least sixteen other African Americans born between 1813 and 1856, probably all former slaves, are interred here. Those buried here also include nine veterans of World War I and veterans of World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.