Old Spring Hill Cemetery is also know as Lykes Cemetery was first built to
handle to families that lived out in Old Spring hill, Peterson, Wall, Law,
Bassett and their kin. The Old Peterson homestead was adjacent to the
Cemetery as were the Law and Wall home places. If I remember the old family
stories correctly, the Lykes bought the old Wall place next to the cemetery.
When the old house burned they rebuilt. The home that is there now is the
second home on that site. As the old family members died out, the Lykes
cousins bought up the Law, Peterson and Byrd home places. They also,
thankfully assumed maintenance of the cemetery and put their family name on
the place. The name of Springhill was then used when the town of Springhill
was created.
The families were all related through blood and marriage. four Baisden
sisters moved to old Springhill between 1842 - 1845. They were Patience
Baisden who was dead by 1845, Rosa H. who married Malcom Peterson, Martha
Cooper who married Peter William Law, Barbara who married Perry Green Wall,
and Francis who married John Fletus Bassett. Martha and Francis married
their spouses back in Hamilton County FL before moving south. The three
single sisters were the first to move to Hernando county. They followed
several other Hamilton county residents (one was Malcom Peterson) to
Hernando county. Rosa and Barbara married their husbands in a double
ceremony at Old Spring Hill in Dec 1845. The Byrd, Peterson, and Law homes
were standing until after 1945 when my great grandfather John Andrew Albert
Byrd died. He married one of the Peterson daughters and is buried in the
Old Springhill/Lykes Cemetery.
Deborah Byrd