The Ringgold-Sirmons cemetery is 3.5 miles east of Forest Home in northwest Butler County, Alabama. It's almost in the center of Section 5, Township 10 North, Range 13 East, one-half mile north of Forest Home Road (County Road 46) and on the south side of Wolf Creek. This location is 2 miles southwest of the early pioneer village of Manningham.



The cemetery is on a slight hill, on the west side of an unpaved farm road on private property. A wooden sign was placed beside the road by descendants in 2006 to mark the cemetery's location.



The cemetery has 7 marked graves, the oldest being that of William H. Ringgold, who died in 1850 at age 37. Dozens of depressions covering half an acre or more indicate additional graves. The same 7 headstones that were surveyed by Butler County Historical Society volunteers in the 1960s were found, photographed and recorded by Sirmon descendants in 2006-2007, and again surveyed and confirmed in October 2021.



The distance from the unpaved access road and cemetery sign to William H. Ringgold's upright tablet marker (intact as of October 2021) is about 60-70 feet. About another 60-70 feet northeast of the Ringgold marker are the 6 marked Sirmon-Clark-Pingelton graves. All of these graves have box tomb markers (shaped like a box with a slightly larger lid) except Polly Sirmon Clark's grave, which has an upright tablet marker. All of the Sirmon markers are badly broken in 2021.



The northwest quarter of the southeast quarter of Section 5 was patented in 1853 by Richard Ringgold, William's father, who had settled in northwest Butler County before 1820. Richard's 1853 patent was military bounty land for his War of 1812 service in Captain Roberson's Company of South Carolina Militia.



Some of the Ringgold family had evidently been living in Section 5 before 1853, since William was buried here in 1850, even though this area was still unsold public land at the time.



The entire north half of Section 5 was patented by the Alabama & Florida Railroad in 1859, by the Legislative Act of 1856 that allowed federal land patents to railroads for transportation use or profit by re-selling. The remainder of Section 5 was patented by Susan Gregory in 1855, with final patent granted to Ossian Gregory, her husband and trustee, in 1858.



On November 24, 1855, Richard Ringgold (preparing to move to Texas) sold the NW quarter of the SE quarter, Section 5, T10, R12, containing 40 acres more or less, to his Manningham neighbor, Franklin Cross, for $150. On December 13, 1855, Franklin Cross sold the same property to Susan Gregory (by her trustee Ossian Gregory) for $175.



No reference to the Ringgold-Sirmon Cemetery is in these deeds, although "all appurtenances" went with the property.