HILLIARD CEMETERY, Monroe County, Mississippi

by Terry Thornton
email: hillcountrymonroecounty@gmail.com

The appeal to hunters to help locate abandoned Hill Country cemeteries originally published in Monroe Journal December 10, 2008, continues to produce results. As a result of hunters passing on word about a cemetery in the woods, Hilliard Cemetery was located, photographed and inventoried on March 31, 2010.

Thanks to landowner Harry Donovan of Monroe County Mississippi for granting permission to enter his property off Ritter Road near Amory and for also serving as a guide to the cemetery. Mr. Donovan made the trek to the cemetery and back a most enjoyable experience. Thanks also to the hunters who sent word of the cemetery through my brother Sherman Thornton of Amory who assisted with the trip today.

There were four names on three marked graves in Hilliard Cemetery. Depressions in the ground indicate there are several more burials at Hilliard than the markers would indicate; either markers were lost or no permanent marker was erected for those burials.

The following names were transcribed from photographs of the grave markers at Hilliard Cemetery on March 31, 2010. The alphabetized listing consists of surname, given name, year of birth, year of death, name of cemetery, and image number which is a link to the photograph of the grave marker. Click the image number to view the marker and to obtain more complete information about the individual. Images may be enlarged for greater detail.

HILLIARD, Allie, 1855, 1921, Hilliard, img 7066

HILLIARD, Everline, 1822, 1896, Hilliard, img 7063 and 7065

HILLIARD, Hiram, 1816, 1888, Hilliard, img 7063 and 7064

HILLIARD, Oscar, 1864, 1938, Hilliard, img 7059

The important work on early Monroe County Mississippi cemeteries by Dr. W. A. Evans in the 1930s does not include Hilliard Cemetery. The only listing available of Hilliard Cemetery is one posted by Sharon Bowling Carter at Monroe County MS GenForum (click to read). She attributes the list of names to the late Charles Ritter who many will remember as an landowner in the general vicinity of the cemetery. The Bowling/Ritter list has two additional names whose graves were not marked.

Family researchers who wish to visit Hilliard Cemetery are advised to contact Harry Donovan in Monroe County for arrangements and directions. Please do not enter the property without prior permission.

Thanks to Mr. Donovan and to Sherman Thornton for their help with the photographic transcription of Hilliard Cemetery.

The inventory of names and links to the photographs of grave markers at Hilliard Cemetery will be entered in the Monroe County Mississippi Book of the Dead.

Below are two additional photographs of the cemetery.

Inventory of names and photographs of grave markers at Hilliard Cemetery copyright © 2010. William T. "Terry" Thornton, Fulton, Mississippi. All Rights Reserved.