The Willard Pioneer Cemetery began with its first burial in August 1854, when five-day-old John Memorial, Jr., son of John Memorial (Memory) and Samantha Wells McCrary, was buried there. Chosen by Willard's first settlers, the site lay one block east of the first group of log houses erected in Willard in 1851. The McCrary baby was buried in the southwest corner, and later burials were placed north of that grave in order of the date of death rather than by family, unless death immediately followed the last burial. For that reason, a new cemetery was selected in 1869 on the foothills north of the original location. One hundred fifty settlers were buried in this cemetery, and one hundred ten burials have been documented, while the names of forty others are still being sought. The last known burial there was in 1905. The Willard flood of 1923 devastated the site when floodwaters cut a large trench and washed markers and some remains into fields west of town. Located remains were returned to the cemetery and buried in a common grave, and headstones and markers were replaced as accurately as possible.