 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Magnolia
Community - Church - Cemetery
|
The Magnolia Community was established in 1890 by several families who built a Methodist Church that same year. They named the community for the numerous magnolia trees of the area. Fifteen years later the economic influence of the Onalaska sawmill attracted twenty families to settle at Magnolia. The mill stopped operations in 1925 and by 1965 there were only three families and the cemetery at Magnolia remaining.
The Magnolia Church was constructed at this site in 1890 to serve the needs of the community of Magnolia. The structure was utilized as a school as well as a church. The church grew with the prosperity of the area and in turn established a cemetery of the same name. Sometime during the 1940s the church/school burned and was not rebuilt. Only a pavilion stands in its place.
The Magnolia Cemetery was established on June 18, 1896 with the burial of Willie K. Hooker who, as the story goes, had stated “when I die, I want to be buried right there” while looking out the window of the Church. The following month W.G. Baker, a 4 year old child, was buried nearby. Sarah Ann Collier Hooks, age 72 was buried close by in 1897, thereby establishing Magnolia Cemetery.
The five acres of land for the cemetery was donated by J.L. Pitts & wife Lucille as recorded by deed in March of 1925. In 1984 an additional five acres was donated by Southland Paper and the cemetery association was formed with two directors, Atma Stanford & Ben Tanner, listed on the deed.
Since those times, land was cleared, leveled, live oaks planted and the land was developed into 2,840 lots platted with 1,470 graves as of 2021, the 125th anniversary of the cemetery.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
