Hickey Cemetery
Copyright 1999 by Debra Blackard.
Inventoried by Debra C. Blackard on 26 May 1996 and updated February 1999.
The Hickey Cemetery, S26-T9N-R22W, is a half mile from Arkansas State Highway 359, at Hickeytown, on Johnson County Road No. 482. Hickeytown is located approximately 5 miles from the junction of US Highway 64 and 359, north, at Piney; or 7.5 miles from the junction of US Highway 64 and 359, east, at Lamar.
This small cemetery near the Johnson-Pope County line is well-maintained and is an example of the Upland South rural cemetery, showing remnants of the frontier, transitional (late-19th Century), and modern (early 20th to post-World War II) periods of burial customs. Several old oak trees, large red cedars, and a Southern pine shade the hilltop location. In early Spring the cemetery is dotted with jonquils, grape hyacinths, and hybrid hyacinths. By late May, peonies, bearded iris, and sprawling old-fashioned rosebushes mark many graves, while the edge of the cemetery is fringed with wildflowers. A pavilion has been added in recent years, for funeral services and for use on Decoration Day (the 4th Sunday afternoon in May). The cemetery is enclosed by a chain link fence and cared for by a network of families.
Although other listings of this cemetery are available commercially and elsewhere, researchers have found many errors in those listings. Sources for the "Notes" are public records, with additional information from the family records of Beatrice Hickey Johnson (granddaughter of Baron DeKalb Hickey and Mary Elizabeth Bookout), John Irvin Blackard (grandson of Michael H. Hickey and Kansas Simpson), and Cathryn Jones Blackard (granddaughter of Charles Jackson Hickey and Ada O’Neal Winn).
The census was taken from the west, beginning at the north end of each row. Any distinctive decorative carving is enclosed in (parentheses), and added information is in [brackets]. Unless part of a longer inscription, dates are given in genealogical format. Single monuments for multiple graves are listed as one item. Some are temporary funeral home markers rather than carved stones. HFH = Hardwicke Funeral Home, Clarksville, AR.