History of Walling Cemetery

Written by Linda Hendrix, great granddaughter of C. C. Walling.

Walling Cemetery was founded in the mid-1880s by three community leaders (C.C. Walling, J.J. Holland, and A.J. Barber) to bury remains of three children of freed slaves who lived in a swamp community south of the Cemetery. A Yellow Fever epidemic decimated that community and among the deaths were three children. Since no local church would allow the children to be buried in their church cemeteries, these men solicited land for a cemetery from the Yellow Pine Land Company and received a deed for 2 acres. The Cemetery quickly became a community cemetery maintained by community volunteers.

1903 a church congregation known as Union Church built a building and after the church became inactive c. 1920s, the building decayed and was torn down in the 1950s. During the ensuing years, the Cemetery was informally maintained by community volunteers. According to history, after the Civil War a custom was started to decorate graves of Civil War soldiers on the last Sunday in May. Decoration Day was adopted as Memorial Day and Congress made it an official holiday. According to my grandmother (Emma Walling Wolfe), before the Association was formed, families gathered at Walling Cemetery on the last Sunday in May to place flowers on the graves to celebrate Decoration Day.

In 1970 a community volunteer group formed the Walling Church and Cemetery Property Association, elected a Board of Trustees, developed informal Bylaws, and maintained grounds solely with volunteer contributions. By this time in history, the horse and buggy trails had materialized into country roads and the Cemetery was without road access. The Trustees requested an extension of land from the owners of the surrounding timber land, previously the Yellow Pine Land Company, to extend the property to Walling Road on the East and Singletary Road on the North. This request was granted and expanded the 2.0 acres of Cemetery property by 2.55 acres for a total of 4.55 acres.

This group built the current masonry block building to be used as a church chapel for funerals and to host an annual event on the last Sunday in May – continuing the “Decoration Day” tradition. By the early 1990s, maintenance of the property waned leading to deterioration.

In 1998 another group formed hoping to revive efforts to refresh buildings and property for use and, using the 1970 version as a basis, revised the Bylaws. During that time, with a large donation by Mrs. Susie Singletary, a building housing two restrooms was added to the property. In the mid-2000s, this group also drifted into inactivity. In May 2017, the current group formed with the goal to revitalize the organization and apply sound business practices to create lasting results, to collect volunteer contributions and produce fund-raising opportunities to supplement them, to restore the damaged facilities for use, and to promote participation to the younger generational members. A primary goal aimed at achieving stability, permanence, and recurrent funding sources was adopted as the Association applied to the IRS for the charitable tax-exempt status under Internal Revenue Code sections 501(c)3 and 501(c)13. The application was successful, and that status was granted in July 2020 which means that all donations to the Association may be reported to the IRS for federal tax exemption.