ARTICLE FROM BUFFALO REFLEX TUESDAY MAY 26, 2015
The Williams Cemetery had almost disappeared into the quiet woodland along the Benton Branch Road which is off State Road K, east of Buffalo.

It had been mowed over the last 100 years, but just enough to expose the 35 marked graves. The fences had fallen down, yucca plants had overtaken the land and iris tubers had spread far beyond the grave sites into clumps that had been mowed down. Sprouts and small trees were pushing out the stones.
Someone actually stole the metal gate, leaving the little cemetery open to even more thieving of metal markers and survey posts.
The little cemetery joins the Stafford farm. Carl Stafford decided to start cleaning it up. He and his grandsons put a new fence around it. He hired a dozer and cleaned up the fence rows. He mowed and ran the weed eater. He sprayed poison ivy. He hired new grass to be planted.
Mary Gainey dug out the yuccas and extra iris tubers. She carved a new wooden sign for the gate, using ancient oak lumber from a torn-down barn which belonged to another relative of the Williams family. She painted the gates and fence posts.
Graves were uncovered that had been hidden for 50 years. The process of discovering who is buried there has been an interesting journey into the history of Dallas County and the families who lived in the Windyville area.
The oldest graves are three children of John and Elizabeth Hackler, buried not long after the Civil War. Many of the graves are simply field stones set up with no names upon them. Some gravestones have weathered so badly that the lettering is illegible.
But this year every grave that is marked will be decorated with single flowers, not because anyone actually remembers them, but because the plot holds the bones and stories of so many people who were alive, working and raising families in this river bottom land.
A trip to the Dallas County Historical Society gives new insights into the marriages, wills, livelihoods and family dynamics of all the bones at rest in the little Williams Cemetery.
There are many other small cemeteries all over Dallas County, some still in a tangle of brush and vines. Not many people understand what they can learn from such research, but clearly, there are strong examples of how to live, lessons in life, and celebrations to be made for these silent gravestones standing in testimony of folks who lived without a cell phone, electricity, running water, radio, TV and fast food.