--Photo by Leroy Blair

Pleasant Ridge Cemetery

Joy, Arkansas

This cemetery was listed originally in 1970 as “Good Springs” by Cloie and Leister Presley of the White County Historical Society who recorded the following:  “Leave Highway 36 at Joy and go east down the mountain on the road that connects with the road by Morris School… Overgrown and only a few graves cleaned at the edge of the cemetery.  Several unmarked graves indicated.”  The Presleys listed the cemetery as “Good Springs” and noted parenthetically in their material “(Georgia Ridge).” The school at Georgia Ridge had been known as “Sweet Springs”.  Elton English of Mt. Pisgah, whose grandfather is buried here and whose father attended a school beside the cemetery in the early 1900s, said the correct name of the cemetery is Pleasant Ridge.  “My father, Andrew Jackson English, attended Pleasant Ridge School,” he said. “It was built in 1900 and located south of the Pleasant Ridge Cemetery.  All the children in the surrounding area came there until World War One interfered.  The teacher was drafted into the Army in 1917, and the students had to finish the term at Joy.” (See English’s book “Honing the Nugget” on the Internet at www.whitecounty.us  or at the White County Public Library in Searcy.  Also, for a perspective of how the English family lived in Georgia, read The Cold Sassy Tree and its sequel Leaving Cold Sassy by Olive Ann Burns.  The English family lived at Maysville, Georgia, just two miles from the community and characters in these books.)

The cemetery list was updated October 5, 2000, by Historical Society member Leroy Blair.  He reported that he found five funeral home markers that are unreadable.  He also counted 20 graves that were marked with rocks and nothing else.  “There are also some that are not marked at all – just depressions or mounds,” he said. “It is hard to tell how many due to the heavy amount of grass and weeds.  It is fenced with two strands of barbed wire and is badly in need of mowing.”  Shortly after Blair’s survey, Gerald Torrence visited the cemetery for the Historical Society and took the above photograph.  At the same time he found graves for Earnest English and Robert English that were not on the original list.  Following were Blair’s directions for reaching the cemetery:  “The cemetery is off a private road about one-quarter mile from where the blacktop ends on Georgia Ridge Road.  Turn left on that road.  It has a gate (red in color) that is closed some of the time.  The cemetery is down this road about 200 yards on the right.”

If you have corrections or additions to this list or additional information on Pleasant Ridge Cemetery, contact the White County Historical Society, P.O. Box 537, Searcy, AR 72145.

Cole, J.A. – May 2, 1878 – August 18, 1902

Cooper, Georgia Irene – October 15, 1948 – June 30, 2001 – wife of Clayton Cooper

English, Earnest – no information

English, Hiram Jefferson – December 17, 1845 – August 1905 – Co. A, 11 Ga. Cav. C.S.A.

English, Lena – March 23, 1921 – March 28, 1922

English, Robert – died 1927 – Daniel Funeral Home marker

J.H.B. – big rock marker  - at extreme north end

 Haynes, Violet V. – died November 25, 2005 – age 73 years

 Neal, William Meredith – 1839 – 1890 – Baptist minister – Co. C, 21st Ark. Mil. C.S.A.

 Neal, Virgie – January 4, 1901 – ?, 1905 – carved on rock near William Meredith Neal

 Pollard, Nellie, daughter of B.F. & M.J. Pollard – May 24, 1902 – October 24, 1903

Rice, C.J. – February 8, 1898 – July 6, 1898 – stone broken

 Rice, S.M. – “departed this life Mar 30, age 35 years, 15 days” – no other information – stone broken

 Rice, W.C. – May 30, 1894 – August 7, 1898 – stone broken

 Rice, William H. – May 8, 1841 – October 27, 1902

 Watkins, Dan – 1889 – 1925

 Wood, Benton E. – August 11, 1925 – August 11, 1925