A century & a half
of remembrance
Rock Prairie Cemetery near Halltown, Missouri, is the largest cemetery in Ozark Township and has been used as a cemetery since 1838. The land was homesteaded by James N. Downing, Jr. (1801–1851), who came here in about 1833. The original cemetery contained one and one-half acres donated to the cemetery association by J. N. Downing.
The earliest official burial is that of Sarah (Walker) Carlisle, a Cherokee Indian (Sept. 22, 1777 – Sept. 15, 1845) and mother of James Downing's second wife, Mary "Polly" (Carlisle) Bell.
The property was deeded to "Lawrence County as a corporate body for the benefit and use of the surrounding neighborhood" by James Downing's son, James N. Downing, and his wife Sarah Z. (Nickel) Downing, on January 28, 1888.
James Downing himself is not buried here — he died on his 50th birthday on his way home by boat from California and was buried at sea. His wife, Mary "Polly" Bell, who lived to age 94, rests here. George Hall, from whom the town received its name, is also buried here.
The cemetery has grown through generous gifts of land over the generations: a half-acre from G. J. McCoy in 1899; an addition purchased from J. N. Downing in 1919; the Stewart Chapel, moved here in 1927; further strips donated by the Downing heirs in 1935, the Garrouttes in 1941, and the Stewarts in 1953; and most recently a 125-foot strip given by R. C. and Pat Downing in 2009 for cremated remains.
