About Fisher Cemetery

The Fisher Cemetery is located 0.4 miles north of Highway 24 / Clinton Road on the east side of Magnolia Church Road. It was established in 1850. It is a non-denominational cemetery open to the community.  The history of the cemetery, as researched by (we believe) Mr. William Troy Sessoms in 1928, indicates that originally the name of the cemetery was The Stedman Cemetery, but at that time it was commonly referenced as being The Beatty Fisher Cemetery. The cemetery was described as “A plat of one square acre on the south bank of Buck Creek about two-thirds of a mile north by west from the Stedman Village depot on the A. C. L. Railroad”. The report continues: “It was around the year 1850 that Mr. Henry Nunnery, who owned the land acquired by Mr. Beatty Fisher, donated One Square Acre for a Community Burying Ground.” “Later, about 1852, Mr. Nunnery died and was buried at a spot near the center of the plat previously designated by him – the first person buried therein. His grave, marked only by a small rough rock, is that shown on the chart as No. 19 in Row 7. His wife was buried later in space 20 of the same row.”  “Archie Brown, said to have been the second person buried in the plat, occupies space 17, while Frances Rowan Brown occupies space 16, both in Row 7.” 

The cemetery is now officially The Fisher Cemetery and it remains connected to the Fisher Family. The open farm field on the left as you approach the cemetery grounds is part of the Fisher Family property. In 2001, Mrs. Pat Fisher sold Ellen Hall, in her role as Executor for the Nina and L. K. Jones’s estate, almost an acre of property adjoining the original site to allow for expansion of the cemetery. The purchase process deeded the property to the SCDC, and as a result 126 new parcels were plated in 2003 and made available for sale to the public. In early January of 2015, only 14 of those parcels are still available for sale, but during the previous ten years work on the next expansion had been methodically progressing. A new plat, filed with Cumberland County in October of 2013, established 420 new parcels. A major portion of those parcels were made available for sale in October of 2014.  While the SCDC owns the land presently available for cemetery parcel sales, the SCDC does not claim ownership of the cemetery. We issue a Cumberland County recorded deed for each new purchase of parcels. The SCDC administers the Fisher Cemetery property, its money, parcel sales, grounds maintenance, rules and regulations and expansion programs at no expense to the Fisher Cemetery. The Fisher Cemetery is not a perpetual care facility; it does not have a trust fund or an endowment to support it. We must manage its development, needs, maintenance and expansion based on careful spending, new parcel sales and, when necessary, successful fund raising programs.

If you are considering purchasing parcels in the Fisher Cemetery, you are welcome to enquire about the status of the cemetery’s finances.  On the subject of finances, the SCDC understands that the Fisher Cemetery transition from one managed by individual families and organized volunteer work-days in the past, to today’s centralized management and fairly strong financial position began with the work of several local couples in the 1980s. These couples include: Eloise and Bradley Jordan, Virginia and Douglas Bryant, Pearl and D. C. Faircloth, Mayreese and Lloyd Langley, and Ellen and Jesse Hall. They held fund-raisers and other organized events until a substantial amount of money for maintaining the cemetery was established. They organized clean-up socials and “census” events to define who was where in the cemetery. The cemetery fund was eventually turned it over to the SCDC in the 1990s. However, as records of past parcel sales were mostly verbal, the research could not identify with assurance any parcels that were available to sell at that time. This realization led to the need for the additional land acquisition referenced above.  Based on the burial location research work done by Pearl and D.C. Faircloth and by a Boy Scout Eagle Scout project, there is an up-dated directory of the old cemetery grounds located on the south east portion of the cemetery.  The 2014 second expansion provides an excellent opportunity for extended families to establish a family plat within the Fisher Cemetery. Nearly 300 parcels are available in multiple combinations of rows and parcels which can be purchased and then assigned to family members as needed. This selection flexibility declines as small quantity sets of parcels are sold. All parcels within the Fisher Cemetery are subject to the Fisher Cemetery Notes, Rules and Regulations in effect.

Key Contacts:

• C. and Pearl Faircloth have done much of the research of the original cemetery grounds and are our resident historians. If you have questions they may help answer, please call them at 910 483 1971.
• Ellen Hall is the Chairman of the Fisher Cemetery Committee and you may reach her through her family at 910 483 1902.
• Ronald Gentry at (910) 850 4672 and Jesse Hall, Jr. (910) 584 3131 arrange for parcel sales and parcel location issues and you are invited to call either of them to discuss your needs.

Please note that the new parcels are covered by set of Notes, Rules and Regulations that you must read and agree to follow before a sale can be made.