History of Taylor - Liberty Hill Cemetery, eastern Union Parish Louisiana 

Submitted for the Union Parish Louisiana USGenWeb Archives by T. D. Hudson, 4/2004



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Researched & Written by T. D. Hudson
Sources: US Land Records for Louisiana, conveyance records of Lowndes County Alabama, 
census records, Bible records

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The Taylor - Liberty Hill Cemetery is one of the oldest in the parish. Below is a 
history of the cemetery. 

The cemetery and church are located in the NW¼ of Section 12, Township 21 North, 
Range 1 East. From Farmerville, travel northeast on Louisiana Highway 33 towards 
Marion about eight miles, then turn right on Union Parish Road #6702. Go about 0.25 
miles, then turn left on Union Parish Road #7749. The church and cemetery are on 
your left. 
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History of Taylor - Liberty Hill Cemetery, eastern Union Parish Louisiana 
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Only a handful of families lived in what is now Union Parish prior to 1836, and we 
have no records of any permanent white settlers in the Bayou d'Loutre region of 
east/central Union Parish any earlier. The United States Government first offered 
the lands in that region for sale to settlers at the Ouachita Land Office in Monroe 
in 1835. Only a few men purchased land there in 1836, including Thomas T. Ratcliff, 
who came over from neighboring Claiborne Parish. Ratcliff and his wife Rhoda had 
moved to north Louisiana from Tennessee in the 1820s. 

News that the government had put the northern Ouachita Parish lands on the market 
apparently travelled fast. Colonel Matthew Wood made a trip from Lowndes County 
Alabama to what was then northwestern "Washita" Parish Louisiana and purchased 
government land there in January 1836. Wood's sons, Thompson and Willis, and 
his son-in-law, former Butler County Alabama Sheriff John Taylor, may have 
accompanied him on that trip. Wood apparently remained in north Louisiana for 
the balance of the calendar year, for he again purchased land in what is now 
Union Parish on 13 December 1836. However, soon after this purchase he returned 
to Alabama and began making preparations to lead a large group of settlers of 
that region back towards north Louisiana, with the intent to settle there permanently. 

A group of Lowndes County Alabama residents began planning their westward migration 
towards Louisiana even before Wood's return. Indeed, on the very day Wood made his 
final 1836 purchase of Louisiana land at the land office in Monroe, back in Lowndes 
County Alabama, William Ham (c1801 – 1867) disposed of his plantation. Other 
residents sold their farms in early January, and on 14 January 1837, both Colonel 
Matthew Wood and his son-in-law John Taylor sold their Alabama plantations. All of 
them lived in southern Lowndes County, just north of the Butler County line; 
during the 1820s, they had resided in northern Butler County, near Fort Dale and 
Greenville. 

Colonel Wood and his group departed from Lowndes County soon after January 14th, for 
they made the trek from central Alabama to north Louisiana within one month. Two years 
later, Wood, Taylor, and a few other influential citizens petitioned the Louisiana 
Legislature to form their own parish, separate from Ouachita. On 13 March 1839, 
the legislature granted their wish with its creation of Union Parish. Within two 
months, the legislature appointed John Taylor the first parish judge, a position 
he held for twenty years. 

Upon his arrival in Louisiana in February 1837, John Taylor purchased government 
property at the land office in Monroe. Between then and 1860, Taylor accumulated 
one of the largest plantations in the parish, in terms of wealth and farm production. 
Taylor's plantation bordered the location of what we now know as the Taylor or Liberty 
Hill Cemetery. In fact, the cemetery originated as John Taylor's private family 
graveyard. Taylor was a Primitive Baptist; his brother James Taylor was a Primitive 
Baptist minister. Judge Taylor likely permitted the earliest Primitive Baptist Church 
of the region to hold services at his house and possibly to build a meeting house on 
his plantation. The church was originally known as "Pleasant Hill Church", but at 
some point the members changed the name to the "Liberty Hill Primitive Baptist 
Church". In the latter 1840s, Henry P. Anderson (Taylor's brother-in-law) officially 
gave the church the land on which the church and cemetery now stand. 

As it is both a church and community cemetery, many have disputed the proper name 
of the cemetery. Most refer to it today as the "Taylor - Liberty Hill Cemetery". 




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