The Old Biloxi Cemetery

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The Old Biloxi Cemetery is located just off HWY 90 and spans about 6 acres. The land was deeded by the Fayard heirs in 1844. But the cemetery is believed to be where the cemetery of the early French Settlers was buried during the early 1700s. The cemetery originally sat within a national forest and was surrounded by moss-draped oaks and large cedars. Today, you can some of those large trees shading many of the graves.

The Old Biloxi Cemetery

The earliest grave markers were cedar boards and over time the countless storms have worn away names, and dates or the markers were lost altogether. The old stone marker is in French and has a death date of 1811.

As you stroll through the cemetery reading the names and dates from the stones/tombs you find a broad range of ethnicity and different historical eras of Biloxi. You will find fallen heroes, veterans, those that lived a full life, victims of yellow fever, and victims of the 1918-1919 influenza epidemic laid to rest.

In addition to the historical grave markers, there are celebrities laid to rest throughout the grounds. Those celebrities include James Parks Caldwell, Maria and Mirand Younghans, Jean Guilhot (Hermit of Deer Island), Charles Albert Bessey ( Medal of Honor recipient), Walter and Cora White, Edward Barq (Barq’s Root Beer), Archbishop Eugen Marino, George Ohr, Lazaro Lopez, St. Cyr Zamour, Joseph “Dinker” Lamas and Gladys Purcell Lamas, and Walter “Skeet” Hunt (Founder of Mardi Gras on the Gulf Coast).

To learn more about the above names, click the link. Discover Biloxi has videos with people talking about the above celebrities.

More Names:  Juan de Cuevas (Hero of Cat Island War of 1812), Brigadier General Joseph Robert Davis (nephew of Confederate President Jefferson Davis), Henri Eugene Tiblier (Civil War), Francis Crofton Duncan (Spanish American War), Lyman C. Bradford (World War 2) and Julius J. Sablich, III (World War 2).

Our Visit

As we were finishing up our visit at the Lighthouse Pier we decided to take a quick look at the cemetery to see if we wanted to explore the next time we are in town. We ended up spending almost an hour there exploring. We weren’t able to find any of the listed celebrity grave sites.

So we just strolled around a small part of the cemetery and looked at many of the 100+ year markers and tombs until it got too dark to take pictures. At some point, we plan on going back and checking out a few celebrity markers and exploring other parts of the cemetery.

About the Images

I used my Sony a6000 and my Sony SELP18105G E PZ 18-105mm F4 G OSS lens. The images were then edited with Adobe Lightroom CC, Topaz Labs Denoise AI and Topaz Labs Sharpen AI,  Aurora HDR (no longer available but still a great product), and Luminiar Neo to clean up the images.