In 1854, Ephraim's first settlers built a one and one half acre stone fort for housing and protection against Indian attacks, but they did not include a cemetery. After the first pioneer death, Mr. Manwaring, permission had been given to use Allred Settlement's, now Spring City's, cemetery, but while the funeral party was on the way there, a warning of a threatened Indian attack led to orders to dig a grave, bury the body, and return to Fort Ephraim. That burial, about two miles north of Ephraim, established the present site of Ephraim Pioneer Cemetery, which was used almost exclusively until May 1905. Mr. Manwaring's grave site is unknown, as are other burials recorded in journals but not marked on graves. Many markers bear the names of young children, reflecting the heavy toll of disease and malnutrition in the early years. The cemetery contains ornate oolite and granite markers as well as simple wooden ones, many engraved with loving words, poetry, and decorative emblems. A granite marker identifies the burial place of seven pioneers massacred by Indians in 1865, and nearby are buried seven Ephraim residents who drowned in Funks' Lake in 1878. After many years of neglect, the cemetery's present transformation began in 1990 under the direction of the Ephraim Pioneer Cemetery Committee.