Rockport Cemetery

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 16, 2024

1. Rockport Cemetery Marker

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From the National Register Nomination prepared by Kara Mills Oosterhous, 10/12/01:
Rockport Cemetery is an example of a "rural cemetery" in that it was originally located on the outskirts of town although it is now located in an urban area. Many of Rockport's earliest settlers are interred in the cemetery and the various shapes, sizes and materials dispersed throughout the cemetery reflect the economic status of those buried there.

The entire cemetery possesses the atmosphere of a historic burial ground and contains many important Rockport citizens. However, it is the easily definable historic section that is associated with the establishment and early development of Rockport that also possesses integrity of location, setting, design, feeling, association, workmanship and materials. Very few burials still occur in this section, the only modem interments are for those who purchased plots several years ago. This section has remained intact throughout the years and is the only extant historic resource in Rockport that possesses a high degree of integrity and

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 16, 2024

2. Rockport Cemetery Marker

The marker is mounted atop this stone pedestal located near Cemetery Drive on the east side of the cemetery grounds.

which dates to Rockport's settlement.

The oldest grave, recorded on a stone, is that of Elizabeth Winters who was interred 11 August, 1851. Civil War veterans are also buried within the borders of the historic section of Rockport Cemetery.

Pioneer citizens of Rockport buried in the Cemetery

• Samuel Emerson (1810-1851) Samuel Emerson was the founder of Rockport and was elected County Judge in 1842 and again in 1846.
• Nicholas Miller Nicholas Miller arrived at Rockport in 1848 and purchased an eighty-acre farm from Colonel A. R. Givens.
• W. H. Collie (1833-1911) Mr. Collie arrived in Hot Spring County in 1845 and settled in Rockport in 1846.
• John Hugh McCallum (1824-1897) John Hugh McCallum arrived in Rockport in 1860 to take on responsibility as an elected circuit clerk.
• George L. Erwin (1841-1905) George Erwin arrived in Rockport in 1867, where he and his wife Mary A. Gillis Beauchamp (1842-1910) lived and farmed.
• D. A. Newman (1818-1895) D. A. Newman arrived in the Rockport vicinity in 1853 with his wife Sarah Ceips Newman (1820-1885).

In 1936, during Arkansas's Bicentennial, President Roosevelt visited the Rockport/Malvern area and worshiped at the Old Methodist Church in Rockport where he received a quilt made by Mrs. Verner McMilland, Mrs. Radford and a third unknown

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 16, 2024

3. Rockport Cemetery Entrance

Cemetery Drive splits here to encircle the grounds. The marker can be seen in the center background.

woman. It has been stated that President Roosevelt also visited the Rockport Cemetery in 1936.

Excerpt:  It is the community's oldest and largest cemetery, with known burials dating to 1851. It is the best surviving element of the community's early settlement period and was laid out in the then-fashionable rural cemetery style. A 2.5-acre part of the cemetery, including its two oldest sections, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 16, 2024

4. Rockport Cemetery Gate

Turn west here from Martin Luther King Boulevard (US Business Highway 270) to enter the cemetery grounds.

From the National Register Nomination:  According to Tammie Dillon in her cemetery preservation manual, "Grave Concerns," the entrance gate is symbolic in that it separates the living from the dead. One enters into Rockport Cemetery from Arkansas Highway 270 after passing through an arching metal lynch gate displaying the name "ROCKPORT CEMETERY." Two stone piers capped with concrete support the arch. A drive approximately .2 of a mile long leads past a subdivision on the south and a car lot and pasture on the north. The subdivision ends before the drive reaches the cemetery and a barrier of old growth trees conceals the burial ground from the adjacent sprawl of housing and businesses on the highway. The main drive provides the only access to the cemetery.