[4] The Gospel Pilgrim Society founded the cemetery and was "a social and charitable burial insurance organization".

By 1912, the African-American community had eight orders – including the Gospel Pilgrims – with a total of 29 lodges in Athens, Georgia.

The membership of these lodges totaled about 2,500 people that year, "or about 75 percent of the adult black population of Athens".

The deed lists the probably illiterate laborer, Green Bullock, as the president of the society at the time of the sale.

Finally, in 1905, a 100'x60' parcel was transferred to neighboring Springfield Baptist Church to give the cemetery its current dimensions, bordering Fourth Street and what is now the Seaboard Airline Railway.