Though early burials are difficult to document, there is substantial evidence that the land had been in use as a cemetery for some time prior to its official establishment.

Headstones are sparse in the oldest section, many having decayed over time and been discarded, and it is likely that many unmarked graves share a similarly early date.

Numerous Union troops who died during the federal occupation of Huntsville are believed to have been buried in unmarked graves throughout the oldest section of the cemetery.

To accommodate increasing growth in Huntsville because of industrialization, the city purchased an additional 3.2 acres (13,000 m2) in 1881 from Morris and Henrietta Bernstein.

Erskine, a descendant of several prominent Huntsvillians buried in the cemetery, had acquired the land from a neighboring residential development, probably prompted by the death of his mother in 1915.

On a circular plot in the center of the addition, Erskine constructed an imposing mausoleum to contain the remains of his parents, his wife, and himself.

The purchase from James B. Stevens in 1924 of 59 acres (240,000 m2) on the east side of the cemetery more than tripled its size and gave it its present shape.

Visitor's cite glowing orbs, ghosts of children who died in the Flu Epidemic of 1918, and the swings going without being touched.