Union Cemetery was donated by Reuben Shipley and his wife Mary Jane Holmes Shipley Drake,[2] with the stipulation that both Black people and White people could be buried there.

Union was the first cemetery in the region to permit burials of multiple races.

The headstone for Reuben Shipley procured by his son displays the surname of Ficklin, which is presumed to have been the name of an earlier enslaver.

The cemetery entrance has a large granite marker honoring the Shipleys, which was installed in 1981.

Union cemetery as "a lasting legacy to racial cooperation and understanding".