The Pen Park Cemetery is a misnomer. Before it was a park, it was home to an ante-bellum plantation, owned by several local families, including the Gilmer's, Hotopp's, and Craven's. The standing and inscribed stones in this cemetery belong to these families and date between 1795 and 1991, comprising over 30 gravemarkers. We should note that although it is sometimes referred to as "Penn Park," the correct spelling is "Pen Park." The cemetery is included here because there is an oral tradition that slaves were buried outside of the "family plot." Moreover, unmarked depressions in association with periwinkle are visible along the outside edge of the metal and stone boundary. Although there is no proof that these mark the burials of enslaved individuals, several of the white families who lived here owned slaves. One ante-bellum burial practice was to bury slaves within or adjacent to white cemeteries.

For example, George C. Gilmer (one of the owners of the Pen Park Farm), owned a man named "Anthony Swann" who was referred to in an old newspaper article as the "Faithful Black slave and servant" of Mr. Gilmer. While Mr. Swann passed away in 1912 and was buried in Blenheim, other enslaved individuals who died prior to emancipation mau have been buried in this area.