Aripeka Cemetery

In the old days, cemeteries were usually located on the nearest hilltop on the edge of any town.  In the case of Aripeka lying as it does in the low coastal plain bordering the Gulf of Mexico, there are no hills to be found.  The cemetery is about four miles east of Aripeka, on Hunter’s Lake Road (about a half mile east of U.S. 19).  The Cemetery overlooks Hunter’s Lake, and has a peaceful solitude and pretty view.  In the official records of Hernando County, dated the 23rd day of August, 1912, there is a deed conveying from Richart A. Ellis and Leonore B. Ellis, his wife, of Hillsborough County, Florida, to J. B. Lee and E. G. Willingham, as Trustees of the Aripeka Baptist Church, and their successors in office, a certain five-acre tract of land to be used as a cemetery.  Also there is a quick-claim deed bearing the date of October 18th, 1935, in the official records of Hernando County, Florida conveying from John M. Weeks and Olive Weeks, his wife, the same five-acre tract of land to be used as a cemetery for the residents of Aripeka, Florida, to J.B. Kolb and H. M. Fitzgerald, Trustees of the Aripeka Baptist Church and their successors in office.

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The first burial was in 1906.  Pioneer families represented are Bondurant, Kolb, Newton, Norfleet, White and Wood.  Rumor has it that a young girl died of drowning, and her family had no place to bury her.  Mr. and Mrs. Ellis donated the Hunter’s Lake hillside land so that the residents of Aripeka would always have a place to bury their dead.  The deed for the Aripeka Cemetery calls for free burial plots to the residents of Aripeka regardless of religious affiliations or belief.  In order to improve, maintain, and provide for future care, it is necessary to appeal to the residents of Aripeka for donations and bequests. 

It is the aim of the Board to establish a modern cemetery that will be maintained in a manner in which our community can be most proud, and in which, no grave will go unmarked or unattended.  The Board of Control shall  be composed of three Trustees of the said Church, and the Trustees shall appoint two additional members to be chosen from the Community of Aripeka and who are not required to be members of said Church.  The members of the Board of Control receive no pay for their time or for their expenses.