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Some of Arkansas’s most fascinating history is written in stone. Fairview Cemetery in Van Buren, Arkansas, is one such place. With graves dating back to 1816, this historic Crawford County cemetery preserves the stories of early settlers, military veterans, Civil War soldiers, prominent families, and the people who helped shape Arkansas.
Recognized on the National Register of Historic Places, Fairview Cemetery offers a rare opportunity to explore military history alongside frontier legends, Victorian-era monuments, and distinctive architecture. Whether visiting around Veterans Day or exploring Arkansas history year-round, the cemetery is a place where nearly every pathway leads to another story.
History of Fairview Cemetery
Fairview Cemetery began as a pioneer burial ground before Van Buren was officially established. Its earliest marked grave dates to 1816, when the Arkansas River Valley was still a developing frontier.
As Van Buren grew into a center of river commerce, the burial ground became an important community landmark. Town co-founder John Drennen donated 10 acres to establish the city’s public cemetery, which was formally recognized in 1846.
Over the decades that followed, Fairview became the final resting place for merchants, political leaders, soldiers, families, and residents from many walks of life. The cemetery’s hillside landscape, shaded by mature cedar and oak trees, preserves a remarkable collection of nineteenth-century gravestones and monuments.
The Confederate Section was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996, and the entire cemetery followed in 2005.
Notable People Remembered at Fairview Cemetery
Fairview’s gravestones preserve the names of people who shaped Van Buren’s early years and of those whose contributions were less publicly recognized.
Among its notable burials are:
- John Drennen | 1801-1855: Co-founder of Van Buren, political leader, and military veteran. Most of his immediate family is buried in a central, gated section of the cemetery.
- Hugh French Thomason | 1826-1893: Lawyer, politician, and Confederate Congress member.
- Captain Samuel Churchill Clarke: A young Missouri artillery officer who died in the Battle of Pea Ridge in 1862.
- Patrick Drennen | d. 1858: An enslaved man who worked in John Drennen’s household as a carriage driver, bodyguard and domestic servant. Research confirms his burial in the Drennen-Scott family plot.
- John Tuckington (also known as John Talkington) | 1846-1864: Once enslaved in Crawford County, Tuckington escaped after the Union raid on Van Buren in 1862 and traveled to Kansas, where he joined the Union Army’s 2nd Kansas Colored Infantry, which was later redesignated the 83rd United States Colored Troops. He was wounded at the Battle of Jenkins’ Ferry in 1864 and returned home to be cared for by his wife.
- Clara Bertha Eno | 1854-1951: Known as Arkansas’s “first lady of History,” Eno was a Van Buren native, educator, historian, and preservation advocate who devoted her life to documenting Arkansas’s past. She helped establish the Arkansas History Commission (now the Arkansas State Archives) in 1905 and led efforts to preserve Little Rock’s Old State House. Her research documented 55 Revolutionary War soldiers buried across Arkansas and included books on Crawford County and the state’s historic places.
- James Phillips | 1746-1831: A Revolutionary War soldier and early settler who founded Phillips Landing, the riverfront settlement that preceded Van Buren. Although downtown development eventually covered his original burial site, the Daughters of the American Revolution placed a memorial marker at Fairview Cemetery honoring his military service and contributions to the community.
- John Gilbert Williams | 1915-2008: A Van Buren native and influential architect, Williams founded the University of Arkansas’s architecture program in 1946 and helped shape generations of Arkansas designers. Among his earliest students was the renowned architect Fay Jones, known for Thorncrown Chapel in Eureka Springs. Williams brought nationally recognized architects, including Frank Lloyd Wright, to campus and spent nearly four decades teaching and advancing architectural education.
- Christopher Columbus Danley | 1818-1865: A Mexican American War veteran, newspaper publisher, and Arkansas state auditor, Danley served under Colonel Archibald Yell during the war with Mexico. Captured in 1847, he escaped but was left disabled for life. He later owned the Arkansas State Gazette and served on the Arkansas Military Board during the Civil War.
- Philip Pennywit | 1793-1868: A pioneering steamboat captain who helped establish regular river transportation on the Arkansas River and was the first to navigate a steamboat up the White River to Batesville. After retiring from river travel, he became a businessman in Van Buren. Pennywit was buried in John Drennen’s family plot, despite having no known family ties to Drennen.
- Judge Jesse Turner | 1805-1894: A prominent Van Buren attorney and political leader who served in the Arkansas legislature, as a federal prosecutor and briefly as an Arkansas Supreme Court justice. Turner also championed railroad development in the Arkansas River Valley. During World War II, Camp Jesse Turner in Van Buren was named in his honor, and he trained Army railroad battalions to operate and repair railways in overseas combat zones.
The cemetery also contains Union soldiers and veterans from later American conflicts, broadening its military history beyond the Confederate graves. Scrolling through the list of more than 3200 memorials makes it clear that this place is sacred to military history and to River Valley pioneers. It’s remarkable how much research has preserved and protected these stories over time.
The Confederate Section: Remembering the Civil War
One of Fairview Cemetery’s most significant historic features is its Confederate Section, established during the Civil War. As battles unfolded at Pea Ridge, Prairie Grove, and Van Buren, wounded and sick soldiers passed through the community, and buildings were converted into temporary military hospitals.
At least 100 Confederate soldiers were buried at Fairview during the war, and additional remains were later relocated from battlefields. Eventually, approximately 460 soldiers were interred here.
Like the Confederate Cemetery in Fayetteville, women’s memorial organizations helped care for the graves. In 1896, the Mary Lee Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy organized efforts to maintain the burial grounds and raise funds for a memorial, which was later moved to the Crawford County Courthouse lawn.
Today, approximately 442 marble markers line the rows, many marking the graves of unknown soldiers from Arkansas, Missouri, Texas, Louisiana, and Indian Territory. Union soldiers are also buried elsewhere at Fairview, reflecting the community’s ties to both sides of the conflict.
Six Unique Features to Discover at Fairview Cemetery
Beyond the Confederate Section, Fairview holds more stories of military service, frontier life, family connections, and the unusual ways earlier generations remembered their loved ones.
1. Historic Entrance Gates and Carriage Steps
The Victorian-era iron gates and decorative entrance arch evoke an era when families arrived at the cemetery by horse-drawn carriage. Near the entrance, the original carriage mounting steps allowed passengers to alight before entering the burial grounds. Restored in 2009 by Norton Arts, the steps remain a fascinating link to nineteenth-century travel. Today, the historic gates are no longer used for vehicle entry.
2. Drennen Family Monuments
The Drennen family plot features white marble monuments on limestone bases, including urns, draped urns, and inverted torches. Some monuments contain unusual hidden compartments. Although their original purpose is undocumented, the monuments exemplify nineteenth-century craftsmanship and burial symbolism.
3. Wallace Children’s Monument
One of Fairview’s most distinctive memorials honors three young daughters of businessman Alfred Wallace. The elaborate marble monument features sculptural details and a carved cherub. After a violent thunderstorm caused significant damage, preservation specialists restored it with a grant from the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.
4. Victorian and Egyptian Revival Gravestones
Fairview’s monuments reveal the artistic traditions of past generations. Look for broken columns that symbolize lives cut short, inverted torches that signify death, and carved urns that evoke remembrance and immortality. Angels, lambs, clasped hands, and floral motifs offer further clues to the beliefs and traditions of the families interred here.
5. The Mystery Grave
Perhaps Fairview’s most curious landmark is an unusual stone-enclosed grave, surrounded by local legends. Stories have linked it to a member of Hernando de Soto’s expedition, a Viking explorer, or an unidentified traveler. No archaeological evidence supports these theories. Its alignment with the Thompson family plot suggests a more plausible explanation: an early frontier grave, enclosed in stone to protect the burial.
6. Graves of the 57th United States Colored Troops
Fairview Cemetery is the final resting place of soldiers from the 57th United States Colored Troops, a Union Army regiment composed of Black soldiers during the Civil War. Originally organized in 1863 as the 4th Arkansas Infantry (African Descent), the regiment served throughout Arkansas and, after the war, was stationed in Fort Smith, where it helped maintain order during Reconstruction. Their graves at Fairview preserve an important chapter in African American military service and the fight for freedom during the Civil War.
A Place Worth Remembering
Fairview Cemetery offers a distinctive way to experience Arkansas history. Unlike the national cemeteries in nearby Fort Smith and Fayetteville, Fairview is a community burial ground where military history shares space with the stories of families, pioneers, civic leaders and ordinary residents.
Its graves remind visitors of service, sacrifice, complex histories and the generations who shaped the Arkansas River Valley.
Whether visiting to honor veterans, uncover a local legend, or admire the craftsmanship of a century-old monument, Fairview Cemetery invites visitors to slow down and look more closely. In this quiet corner of Van Buren, history is both remembered and discovered.
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