This cemetery site was purchased in 1930 by the Emery, Peck and Rockwood Development Company and donated to the Bluffton Cemetery Association in anticipation of the construction of Lake Buchanan. The company provided the red sandstone for the cemetery's fence, portico, and well structure. A number of local cemeteries were relocated here to make way for the dam, and stones dating from as early as the mid 1860s mark burials original to the Old Bluffton Cemetery as well as the Chestnut Holland, Maxwell, O'Donnell, and Olney cemeteries, along with a few graves from below White Bluff. Some 59 burials were not identified, but all graves in the water's path were said to have been relocated in three stages in 1931, 1936, and 1937. One of the first interments here that was not a reburial followed the death of Isaac "Ike" Byler Maxwell (1837-1931), who had named the Bluffton community in 1854; he later served as a state legislator, influenced the choice of native granite for construction of the state capitol, held varied state and local public service roles, and was a Disciples of Christ minister. Cared for by an association since the 1930s, the cemetery preserves the heritage of the Bluffton area.