After spending eight posts talking about London’s prestigious Westminster Abbey, I’m downshifting to a much smaller burial ground that’s much closer to home.

On Oct. 9, 2019, I spent a day cemetery hopping around Fayette County, Ga. with my mother, Jenny. You may recall that I wasn’t born in Georgia but in Ohio. We moved to Fayette County in the 1970s when I was a child due to a job transfer my Dad took because it was move or lose his job. But I wasn’t interested in cemeteries in my younger days, so I hadn’t visited that many. It was time to remedy that.

Historic Woolsey Church Cemetery

The first place we stopped was Woolsey Cemetery. Woolsey’s always been a tiny town and these days, it has about 200 or so residents. The surnames of Woolsey, Ballard, Gay, Sams, and Peeples, sprinkled throughout the cemetery, can be found in all of my school yearbooks.

This is an undated photo of the Woolsey Church that belongs to the Fayette County Historical Society. It was taken before 1950 when they replaced the two separate doors with a centered double door.

The cemetery is located next to Historic Woolsey Church. It began as Harmony Grove Missionary Baptist Church on Aug. 26, 1888 with 23 charter members. On Oct. 2, 1904, they changed the name to Woolsey Baptist Church. It’s now called Historic Woolsey Baptist Church to avoid confusion with another Woolsey Baptist Church, which opened later.

I didn’t get a good photo of the church when I was there. This one below was taken in February 2023 by Gary Laggis. Just a month after I visited in 2019, locals formed a group called Friends of Historic Woolsey, Inc. This week, I explored their web site, and learned much more about the cemetery and community.

Here’s what Historic Woolsey Church looked like in February 2023. The annex (on the right) was added in 1963. (Photo Source: Gary Laggis)

The Friends of Historic Woolsey are doing a bang up job getting the church building restored and making improvement to the cemetery. They’ve done GPR (ground-penetrating radar) on the grounds and discovered about 40 unmarked graves. Find a Grave currently lists about 186 memorials.

According to the Friends, the cemetery was originally called Thomas Bolling Gay Burial Ground, based on genealogical research and personal journals. Two of Thomas’ children were buried there in the 1830s. In 1875, Gay’s heirs sold the land to Dr. Isaac G. Woolsey who permitted members of the community to be interred in the cemetery.

Who was Dr. Isaac Woolsey?

When I dove into the life of Dr. Woolsey, I was surprised to find what a unique fellow he was. It’s not often you encounter a man who was a doctor AND a pastor. He cared for both bodies and souls.

Born in 1828 in Kentucky, Isaac was raised in Fentress County, Tenn. After teaching school there for a time, he graduated from the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery, and practiced medicine in Fentress County until 1861.

Dr. Woolsey was married in 1852 to Clemanza Reagan, who died in 1862, leaving five children. She is buried in Beaty Cemetery in Moody, Tenn. Three of their adult children are buried at Woolsey Cemetery.

During the Civil War, Dr. Woolsey enlisted in the Confederacy as a quartermaster, and served until August 1862, when he organized Company C, 8th Tennessee Confederate Cavalry, in which company he served as captain in Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest’s division until the Battle of Chickamauga in September 1863. It was there he was severely wounded and resigned his commission. He wed his second wife Arvazena “Arva” Hutchinson Wood the same year.

The tiny town of Woolsey, Ga. was named after Dr. Isaac G. Woolsey. He was both a physician and a pastor.

The Woolseys moved to Henry County, Ga. and he practiced medicine in Locust Grove. In 1864, Dr. Woolsey also became an ordained minister. Over the years, he usually served three or four churches at a time. In the 1870s, he returned to Cincinnati to improve upon his early medical training.

Dr. Woolsey’s plot is surrounded by a handsome fence. His second wife, Arva, who died in 1915, is buried to his right.

The community in Fayette County in which he lived in his later years was incorporated as Woolsey in his honor in 1893. When his health began to decline, he limited his pastoral duties to Woolsey Baptist Church. He died on Sept. 11, 1902 of heart failure at age 73. Arva died in 1915 and is buried beside him.

Dr. Woolsey is one of the few doctors I know of that was also a pastor.

Dr. Woolsey’s daughter Isabella married James Lewis in 1872. She died in 1934 and is buried with her husband in front of her father’s plot.

Dr. Woolsey’s daughter, Isabella Clemanza Woolsey Lewis, died at age 78 in 1934 in Sarasota, Fla.

The Gay Family

I mentioned Thomas Bolling Gay earlier as having buried some of his children at the cemetery. Thomas and his wife Martha’s daughter, Nancy, is buried at Coweta County’s Tranquil Cemetery (not far from where my sister lives). Nancy married Dr. George H. Page, whose story of how he treated two dying Union soldiers during the Civil War, is one I will save for another time.

Thomas, born in 1797, owned property worth $30,000 according to the 1850 Census. He married Martha Bridges in 1818. They had 10 children together. Some died in childhood while three died in their 20s and 30s within a three-year span. Martha died on May 6, 1860 at age 55.

Did the death of his wife in 1860 and three of his adult children not long after hasten the death of Thomas Gay?

Son Leonard, who enlisted in the Confederacy on April 20, 1861, served in the Second Georgia Infantry Battalion, Co. B. He died at age 22 on Jan. 7, 1862 at a hospital in Norfolk, Va. His remains were brought back to Woolsey Cemetery for burial.

Pvt. Leonard Clark died in a Norfolk, Va. hospital in January 1862 at age 22.

Daughter Sarah Jane, born in 1826, married William Malone in 1845. They had at least three children. Sarah died in February 1862 at age 35. She is buried at Woolsey Cemetery near her parents.

The cause of Sarah Gay Malone’s death in February 1862 is unknown.

Son John died on Nov. 4, 1862 at age 36 but I could not find a military record for him, so I suspect it was not Civil War-related. He may have had some medical training. He is buried at Tranquil Cemetery near his older sister, Nancy Gay Page.

Thomas Gay, perhaps burdened by his sorrow over the death of his wife and three of his children, died on Oct. 1, 1864 at age 67.

Cpl. Archibald Preston

It’s always a thrill to see a photo of the person whose grave I’ve photographed.

During my 2019 visit, I took this photo of the grave of Corp. Archibald “Archie” Gray Preston. Born in 1840 in Monroe County, Ga., he was the son of James and Permelia Preston.

During the Civil War, Archie enlisted in September 1861 and attained the rank of corporal in the 30th Regiment, Georgia Volunteer Infantry. He served in Company A, also known as “Butts’ Invincibles” because many of the men were from Butts County (southeast of Fayette County) where he lived in his early years. It became Company I after reorganization in 1862.

According to records, Archie saw plenty of battle action in Georgia and Tennessee in the 30th. He was imprisoned in Nashville, Tenn. in December 1864. He was also imprisoned at Camp Chase, a prison camp for Confederate soldiers, in Columbus, Ohio. He was released in June 1865. Camp Chase has a Confederate cemetery of its own that I visited in 2021.

Archibald, also known as “Archie” or “A.G.”, Preston ran a blacksmith shop in Woolsey. I found this photo of him on the Friends of Historic Woolsey web page. (Photo Source: Virginia Bailey)

In 1867, he married Martha Emily Mayo and the couple had nine children together. The family settled in Fayette County.

Thanks to the Friends of Historic Woolsey’s Facebook page, I learned that Archie played an important role in the community since he operated a blacksmith shop, and locals enjoyed congregating there to chat and share news.

Archie died on Feb. 28, 1905 at age 59. His obituary described him as “an honorable and upright man,” highlighting his sterling character.

Archie Preston’s wife, Martha, died 10 years after he did.

Archie shares a marker with his wife, Martha, who died on Dec. 29, 1919 at age 71. There’s a touching inscription on the back that I’m glad I did not miss.


This inscription is on the back of Archie and Martha Preston’s shared grave marker.

Run with the Horsemen

Finally, I’d like to talk about someone buried here that I personally knew. Like Dr. Woolsey, Dr. Sams had two professions. He was both a doctor and an author.

Born on Sept. 26, 1922, Dr. Ferrol Aubrey Sams, Jr. (known by many as “Sambo”) and his wife, Dr. Helen Fletcher Sams, were the only two doctors I ever saw as a child. They were the healthcare of Fayette County at their office on Jeff Davis Drive for many years, which featured enormous goldfish in an indoor fountain/pond that diverted many a child waiting to be seen.

Dr. Sams published his first book in 1982 at the age of 60. He kept serving the residents of Fayette County while writing more books. (Photo Source: Billy Howard Photography)

While I saw “Dr. Helen” the most, I did see Dr. Sams from time to time. They were both kind, salt of the earth people who were regarded with great affection and respect by everyone.

In 1982, Dr. Sams dove into his childhood memories of Fayette County when he wrote Run with the Horseman. It was the start of a trilogy of works featuring Porter Osborne Jr., a character largely based on Dr. Sams himself. The buzz around Fayette County was enormous as people tried to figure out who the other characters might be based on.

In 1991, Sams was awarded the Townsend Prize for fiction for his publication of When All the World Was Young. He wrote a total of eight books.

Run With the Horsemen was Dr. Ferrol Sams’ first book, published in 1982.

My most vivid memory of Dr. Sams is when I finished my master’s degree at the University of Georgia in 1992. I was having difficulty finding a job and my training was as a journalist. My father, one of his patients, thought Dr. Sams might have some words of wisdom. So we went to his office to have a chat.

Dr. Sams was kind and asked me a few questions. He told me about his current publisher, Longstreet Press, and suggested I contact them. While I didn’t end up getting hired by them, I was grateful that he took time out of his busy day to see me.

Dr. Sams retired in 2006. He died on Jan. 29, 2013 at age 96. Dr. Helen died only a few weeks later on Feb. 23, 2013 at age 89.

Drs. Ferrol and Helen Sams served the Fayette community faithfully for decades.

The Sams’ legacy can still be felt today in their children. W. Ferrol Sams is a Superior Court judge and Dr. Ferrol Sams, III, is a physician. Dr. Sams (the younger) was incredibly helpful in assisting my mother in making the decision to bring my father out of a nursing home so he could spend his last days in home hospice care. I will always be grateful to him for that.

I’m thrilled that the folks of Woolsey are working together to preserve the heritage of the community and the cemetery, which are an integral part of Fayette County’s rich history.

Juan Fernandez McLean (1839-1916), whose marker is front and center, purchased the original fence for the cemetery from Stewart Ironworks in 1907. It was later replaced with a more modern one. To preserve the fence’s history, the original has been incorporated into the Friends of Historic Woolsey’s logo (see below).

For more information on the Friends of Historic Woolsey’s work and how you can get involved, click here.