Colonel John Dils purchased the property in 1871 on which this cemetery is located. He was the colonel of the 39th Kentucky Infantry in the Civil War. In addition to Colonel Dils, several Civil War veterans are buried here with the original Union military markers. The cemetery is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Hatfield-McCoy Feud District and has changed little since 1871. It is the final resting place of several participants in the Hatfield-McCoy Feud, including Randolph McCoy, the leader of the McCoy family, his wife Sarah, their daughter Roseanna, their son Sam, and Sam's wife Martha. The cemetery is the first known racially integrated cemetery in Eastern Kentucky, and 120 of its 500 graves, many of them unmarked, are African American.