Peart Cemetery, Rapides Parish Louisiana
Submitted by Jane Parker McManus

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PEART CEMETERY - Rapides Parish

Directions:  Go South on LA Hwy. 107 from Pineville, go 1.7 miles 
past blinking light at Kraft Paper Mill Road and turn right on Palmer 
Chapel Road.  After passing Palmer Chapel Cemetery, go straight at 
intersection (Gunter Road on map, Palmer Chapel Road on sign) to the 
end of original road.  Red River is visible from here (new part of the 
road turns to left; old road continues as a dirt road near a trailer).  
Turn right on dirt road. Access to cemetery is difficult, but can be 
made on 3-wheeler or 4-wheel drive vehicle.  Tombstone inscriptions 
were recorded by Mary Parker Partain and Jack Fraziar, Jr., July 1993, 
with access to the cemetery made by John Daniels.  Submitted by Jane 
McManus, July 2000.

Mr. Daniels and his family took us to the cemetery in an old 4-wheel drive
Toyota pickup and it was a rough ride.  The hardest part was when he stopped
and said we would have to walk from there.  The .5 mile ride was bad; the
1/8 mile we walked was worse.  Briars and small pine trees were too thick to
separate. Mr. Daniels used a machete to clear a narrow trail to the top of
the hill where a stand of tall pines formed a ceiling for the scattered
gravestones and numerous depressions on the bank of the Red River.  From a
boat on the river Mr. Daniels could always recognize where the cemetery was
because of the tall pines on the very high, steep bluff.  (This is in the
sharp bend in the river that was straightened in recent years with a new
channel, making a huge lake out of the "Oxbow.")

The last two graves in this listing are about 25 feet from the edge of the
bluff overlooking the river.  Mr. Daniels told us that the last time he
visited the cemetery, he saw one more small stone near the edge.  Possibly
it has since fallen straight down into the water.  A whole row of
depressions without stones are near the edge of the cliff.  Another native
of the area said that a few years ago there were seven stones there, three
of them near the edge of the bluff.  Unfortunately, the mighty force of the
Red River during floods of years past, has taken its toll on this little
cemetery and many more up and down the river.

Peart, Francis L. - 2 Oct 1834/15 Jan 1906  Father
Peart, Martha Ann - 11 Jan 1837/14 Jan 1921, 84 yrs 3 das
     [above 2 burials have identical stones & footstones]

Hathorn, Ben Lewis, son of M&M J. G. Hathorn - 13 Sep 1878/13 Jan 1884

Peart, Marietta - 9 Sep 1863/31 Jan 1882,   Erected by Sister