The Big Pine Barren Baptist Church Cemetery is located in Davisville, Florida with the first recorded burial in 1886. It is one of the largest Baptist Church cemeteries in Escambia County and the second oldest Baptist Church in Escambia County. Directions: Travel US Highway 29 north to intersection with State Road 97. Turn left on SR97 for twenty (20) miles to intersection with State Road 4. Right on SR4 for about one (1) mile on north side to the entrance road to Pine Barren Baptist Church and Cemetery. The point of contact at the time of the survey was Raymond Norris (850) 327-6208.
Eula Merline Ward Booher, Pensacola High Class of 1940, wrote on June 10, 2002, "This is a story that might never get told unless I tell it. On one of my visits was to see Ms. Mattie Jane Ward Kimmons (1889-1992) in Pine Barren, and she related this story to me. I always counted it a privilege to visit someone over 100 years old. Her father was John Riley "Dock" Ward. Mattie and her sister, Alice Ward Tucker, spent their entire life in Pine Barren so they were acquainted with everybody. When the Pine Barren Cemetery was laid out it remained empty – waiting to receive a body. The first person buried there was the little African American child of well known and respected couple, that lived in the Pine Barren community. Since there was no black cemeteries for miles around, they asked permission for the burial of their child there so they could visit the nearby grave site. Even in the old age of segregation, they were quickly granted permission and the burial took place with solemn respect. The grieving couple visited the grave for years where they kept flowers adorning it. The body still lies in its lonely grave among all the old white settlers of a long gone era. One of the earliest graves is noted as 1882, so I suspect that the child's earlier grave is now unmarked as the old wooden markers passed away with time. Few people have ever known this story."
