Ferrol Sams, storyteller, doctor, and author, tells of visits to his grandfather's grave at Historic Woolsey Cemetery with two of his grandsons on Christmas morning to carry on a family tradition.

"The sun was rising when I gathered them that morning, and it made the winter trees across the fields glow gold with slanted light. We tiptoed. We bent over. We hugged the granite marker carved with 'Sams. Compton. Giles. Cole.' The boys looked at me and I nodded. 'Christmas gift!' they shrieked as they sprang around the sides
and into the family plot." 
– Ferrol Sams, from Christmas Gift!

Each cemetery’s physical environment tells stories unique to its community and to the people buried there. While no exact records indicate the first burials in the cemetery, based on genealogical research and personal journals, two of Thomas B. Gay’s children were buried there in the 1830s. In 1875, Gay’s heirs sold the land to Reverend I. G. Woolsey, MD who permitted members of the community and church to be interred in the cemetery.

In December 1906, Juan Fernandez McLean placed the original fence, made by the Stewart Iron Company, around the cemetery. In 2007, Woolsey Baptist Church replaced the original fence with a more modern fence after several cars damaged part of the original. To preserve the fence’s history, the original has been incorporated into our logo.

To celebrate and honor the lives and legacies of those laid to rest in the cemetery, Friends of Historic Woolsey is committed to preservation, storytelling, education, and community. Please visit our Contact page to share your stories with us. 

In addition to cleaning up and maintaining the grounds of the cemetery, Ground Penetrating Radar Systems (GPRS) provided a geophysical analysis of the area outside of the cemetery fence which identified the locations of forty-four potential unmarked graves.

Please do not remove any historic items including grave markers from the historic cemetery. If in the past you have done this by replacing unreadable markers, please contact us and return the original markers to Friends of Historic Woolsey to be replaced in their rightful place in the cemetery.

We are continuing to improve and restore the Historic Woolsey Cemetery. We'd love to have a family representative for each person buried in Historic Woolsey Cemetery for our records. Please contact us to send us email an with your contact information. Also we are updating our records; please contact us with information such as careers, interests, military service, etc. about anyone buried in the cemetery.

GPRS Unmarked Graves Survey