Big Spring aka Bly, Martin Cemetery

Additional Cemetery Info...

One of the older schools in northeastern Benton Township. It acquired its name from the large, good spring near, generally known as Big Spring, which has taken names of landowners at various times. The old log building and spring were called Friend's for Elijah Jefferson Friend, a former school commissioner and Civil War Veteran who settled there before the Civil War. The spring and cemetery were later known for a time as "Martin" for "Grandma" Martin who had settled near, under the Squatter's Act. About 1880, Robert Wilcox acquired the Martin land and was, for many years, caretaker of the cemetery, being paid by the community. The burial ground took his name but the spring apparently refused it. Usually known as Big Spring Cemetery, for the spring, it is sometimes spoken of as Bly Cemetery for the village near. Big Springs Baptist Church, organized January 19, 1879 by the Reverends D.W. Epley, Zee Martin, and H. Forest, used this schoolhouse, but there have been no regular services since about 1930. The membership gradually declined, some going to Union Chapel (q.v.). The name was suggested by Reverend Epley. (Mrs. Rebecca Gill; D.C. Stephens; D.W. Epley; Geo. Callahan; Mrs. Nancy Hunter; T.J. Whitmire; C. Vaughn; MINUTES 1931)
Source: Pottenger, Cora Ann. "Place Names Of Five Southern Border Counties Of Missouri." M.A. thesis., University of Missouri-Columbia, 1945.