When I look back at my visit to Florida in February 2020, I have mixed emotions. While I didn’t know it then, it would be the last time I visited Blue Mountain Beach with my best friend. She ended our friendship for reasons I still don’t understand a year and a half later. I miss her a lot.

Second, the “hop” I took in two Pensacola cemeteries then would be the last before the Covid-19 pandemic took hold. It didn’t keep me out of the cemetery but things did change.

A few weeks later, I was sitting in my car waiting for my son to get out of school when I listened to a news report about this strange new illness. I had just booked a bed and breakfast in New Orleans for spring break and was wondering if I was going to have to cancel.

I wouldn’t make it to New Orleans for another three years.

At the same time, I’m very glad I did make it to Pensacola! Although it was a two-hour drive one way from Blue Mountain Beach through construction traffic, to me it was well worth the effort. In addition, cemetery hopping in NW Florida in February means a comfortable temperature!

St. Michael’s Cemetery (SMC) is wedged in next to Interstate 110 and the roar of cars going by is ever present. But as you walk amid the graves, you can step back a few hundred years as you read the markers. Today, primary stewardship for the cemetery is provided by St. Michael’s Cemetery Foundation of Pensacola, Inc., a nonprofit.

The history of SMC alone makes it a stand out, but the fact that it’s documented so well by interpretive signs throughout makes it even better. Quite an effort has been made to help visitors learn more about Pensacola’s rich history and the people that helped create it.

SMC’s self-guided walking tour is documented with this helpful map. It certainly helped me find some of the more notable graves.

The City of Five Flags

Pensacola is often referred to as the City of Five Flags due to the five governments that have ruled it during its history: Spain (Castile), France, Great Britain, the United States, and the Confederate States of America. So when you glance at the names on the grave markers at SMC, that heritage is reflected in them.

Pensacola was the first multi-year European settlement in the continental United States, established at by conquistador Don Tristán de Luna y Arellano in 1559. Two years later, in 1561, the settlement and its fleet were destroyed by a hurricane and the site was abandoned. Pensacola was permanently reestablished by the Spanish in 1698 and became the largest city in Florida, and the capital of the colony of West Florida.

Since Pensacola was destroyed and abandoned only two years after it was first founded, many people regard St. Augustine, Fla. as the first permanent European settlement in what would become the United States. The City of Pensacola, however, still occasionally refers to the area as “America’s First Settlement” in advertisements, signs, and travel brochures.

The city and its bay were named after the Panzacola Indians, a tribe that lived near the bay when the Spanish arrived. They spoke a Muskogean language. The name was changed to Pensacola to make it easier to pronounce. Later, both the French and the British would wrest it away but the Spanish had three different periods of possession until 1821. It was later under Confederate control during the Civil War until 1865.

St. Michael’s Cemetery Established

According to the cemetery web site:

Historical research and early maps indicate that the land in and around the modern cemetery was in use as a burying ground beginning in the mid to late 18th century. The earliest surviving above ground markers in St. Michael’s Cemetery, however, are associated with Pensacola’s Second Spanish Period (1781-1821).

Pensacola drew immigrants from around the world. There are approximately 3,200 marked graves in the cemetery, and with subsurface anomalies, possibly several thousand unmarked graves. Tombstones in the cemetery reflect not only status and ethnicity of individuals but also reflect society as a whole on the Florida Gulf Coast frontier.

Looking on Find a Grave, I see that the oldest marked grave is for George Oseola Commyns, an infant who died on May 2, 1812. We only know this due to a 1938 book of transcriptions of the cemetery, the inscription on George’s grave is now impossible to read.

The Sullivan Brothers

The largest monument at SMC is for Irishman Daniel Francis Sullivan (1833-1884). The plot is surrounded by a well-maintained fence. Daniel is the only occupant as far as I know. Perhaps plans were originally for his wife and daughters (along with their spouses) to be buried with him later.

Born in Ireland in 1833, Daniel moved to Pensacola with his younger brother Martin when they were young. He married Alabaman Emily S. Cropp in 1868. The brothers were very successful in the lumber business, purchasing several mills and wharves on Pensacola Bay, and large areas of timber in other parts of Escambia County. Later, Daniel was president of Pensacola’s First National Bank.

The town of Century was founded around the lumber industry the Sullivan brothers brought to the area. A colorful personality, Daniel also built the Pensacola Opera House that opened in 1883. Two hurricanes in 1916 and another the next year caused so much damage that it was demolished in 1917.

According to a 2019 article in the Pensacola News Journal:

Sullivan’s life was like Horatio Alger, for he had begun with a modest career, then extended into insurance investing and beyond the lumber industry itself. There, by the 1880s, he had become a millionaire, a true first for that time and within Pensacola itself. Observers of those years labeled Sullivan as flamboyant, perhaps because he set a standard in bringing “the unusual” to the community. With capital to invest, Sullivan focused his eyes upon the arts, then in 1883 he began establishment of the Pensacola Opera House.

Daniel and Emily had two daughters, Mary and Katie. His lumber business, operated with his brother, was thriving and his wealth increased by the year.

So it came as a shock when on the morning of June 14, 1884 that (according to his obituary) Daniel Sullivan was found “dead in his bed”. His family and the community were shocked. He was only 50 years old.

I don’t know how long Emily and her daughters remained in Pensacola. But by 1910, census records show they were all living comfortably in the same Manhattan household in New York City. Katie married promoter Malcolm Anderson and had three children, while Mary remained unwed.

When Emily died in 1919, she was buried in River Bend Cemetery in Westerly, R.I. Mary and Katie are buried in the same cemetery.

Daniel’s brother Martin continued with the lumber and banking business in the years that followed. He and his wife, Kate, had five children together. Martin, who had recently traveled back to Ireland, felt his health beginning to decline in 1911. He traveled to Baltimore, Md. for medical treatment in the fall of that year. He died on Oct. 15, 1911 at age 73. Katie made it to his side only a few hours before his death, one article said.

Martin is also interred in SMC, but not in the Sullivan plot. He and his family have their own handsome mausoleum.

Tragedy was not done with the Sullivan family. Son Charles Russell, 25, died in Colorado Springs, Colo. only a month later on Nov. 16, 1911. A cashier in his father’s bank, he had traveled west in hopes of improving his health.

Daughter Marie Sullivan Read, only 37, died during or after giving birth on Jan. 1, 1912. Her infant daughter, Marie Ellen, died the next day.

Martin, Russell, Marie, and the baby were the first four interments in the mausoleum. Katie died at age 86 in 1937. She is interred in the mausoleum along with the other adult children (Julia, Martin, and John).

There’s so much more I have to show you at St. Michael’s Cemetery. Part II is coming soon.

In Part I, I shared the story of the angel at Hendersonville, N.C.’s Oakdale Cemetery that is said to have inspired Thomas Wolfe when he wrote his 1929 novel, Look Homeward, Angel.

This week, I’m going to feature what I’m simply going to call…random funky stuff at the cemetery. Every cemetery is a little different. Oakdale stood out to me not only due to Wolfe’s angel but for the many above ground vaults/tombs sprinkled throughout the cemetery.

Brick Tombs Aplenty

Last time, I showed you some large vaults from Oakdale Cemetery. Now I’m going to share some of the individual brick ones. My guess is that at some point in the 1940s to 1960s, a local brick mason was making these. Perhaps they might have also been more affordable than the ones being manufactured at that time.

Lloyd Laughter has a stone marker placed atop his brick vault. It has a stone slab over the top. He died on July 28, 1954 at age 51 after a long illness. It makes sense in a way that he has a vault like this because his obituary mentions he was both a stone mason and a builder. His wife, Martha, died 24 years later at age 70 in 1980. You can see her marker to the left of his vault in the photo above.

Unlike the Laughters, the Moodys are buried in one double brick vault, topped by a stone slab. They have individual bronze plaques with their names/dates on the front.

Lua Mae Garren Moody, 67, died on Dec. 19, 1950. Her husband, Ralph Leonard Moody, a retired railroad worker, died on Nov. 4, 1962 at age 75. Ralph remarried to Inez Brooks but she is not buried at Oakdale Cemetery.

Helen Saleeby’s vault is made of brick and has a handsome bronze plaque on one end. It does not have a stone slab on top like the others I’ve mentioned.

Helen “Hallie” Kershaw Saleeby was a native of Beirut, Lebanon but emigrated to America in 1910. She married Saloom Saleeby, who was also a native of Lebanon. Sadly, Saloom was shot and killed during a robbery at the gas station he operated in Salisbury, N.C. in 1940. He was 69 when he died. Hallie died on March 13, 1968 at age 82.

The vault of Dixie E. Whiteside is a little different because the bricks are a white/gray and the top has a curved, arch-like shape to it. She has a bronze plaque with her name/dates on the front. She died on Oct. 31, 1965 at age 40.

Ann Osteen Waters has a similarly shaped brick vault but hers is made of the traditional red bricks and is not as tall. She died at age 42 on May 12, 1965.

Roll Out the Barrel (Vaults)

Oakdale Cemetery also has a number of what I call “barrel” vaults because they look like a barrel sticking halfway out of ground. The body is not above ground but is buried underground. The two I’ve featured here are from t he 1930s.

This one for Ulysses Grant Alredge (1872-1937) is typical of the ones I see. I noted seven men named Ulysses buried at Oakdale Cemetery. But only this one was Ulysses Grant, not exactly a popular name in North Carolina after the Civil War!

Born in 1872 in Polk County, N.C., Alredge did not go by “Ulysses” but “Grant” instead. During his last 10 years, he was the election registrar for the South Blue Ridge precinct. He died on May 5, 1937 after an illness of two years.

The barrel vault for Lillie Louise Forest Garren (1880-1934) is very similar to that of Ulysses G. Alredge. But hers appears to have two small vent holes on one side of it.

Born in 1880 to John P. Forest and Louisa Caroline Forest, Lillie married William Absalom Garren. He was a police officer who served in many roles from constable to deputy sheriff to police chief in Henderson County.

Lillie died on March 5, 1934 at age 53. She is buried to the right of her son, Willie, who died as an infant on Oct. 21, 1902.

“Of Such is the Kingdom of Heaven”

The monument for William Stuart Gover caught my eye because of the lovely ivy entwining the column carved into it.

Born in 1893 in Kentucky to stock trader Bowen Goggins Gover, Jr. and Annie Singleton Gover, William was one of their three children. He had battled with tuberculosis since the age of five (according to his death certificate). According to his obituary, he was known and liked by many in Hendersonville. He died of heart failure at age 17 on May 17, 1911.

William is buried between his mother and his sister, Gladys Gover Egerton.

A Transplanted Scotsman

The detail of the carving on the monument to Thomas Anderson and his wife, Annie Laing Anderson, I worth sharing. I wonder if it was from the Asheville monument shop operated by Thomas Wolfe’s father.

Born in Crossgatehall, Scotland in 1836, Thomas married Annie Laing in Wentworth, Canada in 1867. The couple had two daughters, Maggie and Bessie.

According to the 1880 Census, they were living in Spartanburg, S.C. where Thomas worked as a railroad engineer. Thomas’ brother, James, a railroad superintendent, and his nephew, William, an engineer, lived with the family .

The Andersons were living in Hendersonville at the time of Thomas’ death on May 18, 1887. He was 50. I don’t know his cause of death.

Annie lived with daughter Maggie (she never married) for the remainder of her life. Annie died on Dec. 21, 1921. Maggie died on Feb. 28, 1944. Bessie, who married the Rev. Montraville Walker Egerton in 1893, died on Nov. 30, 1941. Both daughters are buried at Oakdale Cemetery.

The draped urn at the top of the Anderson monument features flowers and an eternal flame. I think this one is particularly well executed by whoever carved it.

Then there are the flowers that adorn the top of each side of the monument. Again, I think these were done by someone with admirable carving skills.

My traveling companions were ready to get going so we left Oakdale Cemetery. Lisa and I found a nice winery not too far from our cabin and enjoyed some freshly made sangria.

Next time, I’ll take you with me to visit St. Michael’s Cemetery in Pensacola, Fla.

Leaving Fayette County behind, I went on a weekend getaway to the Carolinas with a few of my friends. We stayed at Table Rock State Park. Naturally, my friends Sarah, Beverly, and Lisa knew I’d want to visit a cemetery and were game. I already had a specific one in mind.

Oakdale Cemetery is located in Hendersonville, N.C. and covers about 22 acres. I found conflicting information on how many burials are there. The 2013 application seeking to put Oakdale on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) noted there are about 5,400 buried here. But Find a Grave has over 8,000 memorials recorded.

Established in 1885, Oakdale had a section for whites and a section for blacks. Acreage was added in 1913 and 1943. Some grave markers were moved to Oakdale Cemetery from other cemeteries. Some from Hendersonville’s Methodist Episcopal Church were moved in 1923 (now First United Methodist Church) and First Presbyterian Church (1955) when they built new church buildings in the areas where their cemeteries were located. So that explains why you’ll see graves that pre-date the 1885 establishment date of Oakdale.

There are also some intriguing vaults at this cemetery. This brick one for the Staton family was built in the 1940s.

Then there is this large rectangular-shaped, classical style concrete block structure built in 1951 near the 1943 section’s southwest corner to house burial vaults.

But what most people want to see when they visit Oakdale is the angel that inspired an author in writing a bestselling novel that is still read by many today.

Thomas Wolfe’s Inspiring Angel

This particular area of Western North Carolina is notable for two authors that called it home. The best known is Carl Sandburg, who was a poet and an author. He won three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. Sandburg was widely regarded as a major figure in contemporary literature, especially for volumes of his collected verse, including Chicago Poems (1916), Cornhuskers (1918), and Smoke and Steel (1920).

The second is Thomas Wolfe (1900-1938), who was born in Asheville, N.C. Wolfe wrote four novels as well as many short stories, dramatic works, and novellas. His best known novel, Look Homeward Angel, was published in 1929 right before the stock market crash. Set in the fictional town of Altamont, Wolfe’s coming-of-age novel is closely based on his family, neighbors, and upbringing in Asheville.

Wolfe’s father, William Oliver Wolfe, was a stone carver and operated a successful grave stone business in Asheville. Although an accomplished artisan, Wolfe did not have the skill to carve an angel’s face. The stone angel that inspired the novel’s angel was actually carved in Carrara, Italy and ordered from New York. His business used an angel in the window to attract customers.

Thomas Wolfe described the angel in great detail in a short story and in Look Homeward, Angel. While there was controversy over which one was the actual angel, the location of the Thomas Wolfe angel was determined in 1949 to be at Oakdale Cemetery.

The title of Wolfe’s book comes from John Milton’s Poem “Lycidas”:

Look homeward Angel now, and melt with ruth:
And, O ye Dolphins, waft the hapless youth.

Although records indicate that Wolfe sold at least a dozen Italian marble angels as grave markers, the angel in Oakdale Cemetery most closely matches the description in the novel.

W.O. Wolfe sold the angel to the Johnson family in 1906. It marks the grave of Margaret Bates Johnson, wife of Dr. Henry Johnson. Dr. Johnson was president of Whitworth Female College in Brookhaven, Miss. Although Margaret died on May 26, 1905, in Brookhaven, she was reinterred in the Oakdale Cemetery since Hendersonville was her hometown. Dr. Johnson is buried beside her.

Wolfe was diagnosed with tuberculosis not long before he died at age 38 on Sept. 15, 1938. He is buried in Asheville’s Riverside Cemetery, which I visited in 2023. So you’ll get to see his grave here eventually.

Sadly, Wolfe’s fans visiting the grave caused damage to the statue that required repair. A wrought iron fence now encloses the Johnson graves to keep them safe from further harm. So I couldn’t get too close to her. But I was able to photograph her through the bars. If you find yourself in the Hendersonville area, it’s well worth the time to visit the angel.

Tragic Train Accident

One of Oakdale’s most heartbreaking monument is for Lewis Littleberry Tunstall. His tree-shaped monument has a train engine and coal car carved into it below his name and birth/death dates.

Lewis was the engineer on a railroad engine that pulled a train from Hendersonville to Spartanburg, S.C., when the train’s brakes failed and it jumped the tracks. It then slammed into a large chestnut oak tree. The impact killed Tunstall immediately. The cause of this accident was the lack of safety switches on the Saluda Grade. After this tragedy, the railroad built safety switches between Saluda and Melrose to prevent further accidents. So Lewis’ death was no in vain, but actually saved future lives.

Masonic and Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineer (see the interlocking B and E) markings can be seen on the “tree,” along with a skillful carving of a locomotive engine and coal car. It’s possible that the Brotherhood paid for his marker.

Lewis, who was only 32 when he died, left behind a wife and daughter.

Gentlewoman, Philosopher, Author, Composer, and Artiste

I’m going to close Part I by including a grave stone I found for Henrietta Natalie “Hennie” Whitted Price. I had no idea who she was and I’m guessing you don’t either. But it appears she was a minor lady of note in Hendersonville back in her day.

Born in Hendersonville in 1865, Hennie was the daughter of Dr. William Davis Whitted and Sara Earle Yancy Blasingame Whitted. She married William Bates Price in Chicago in 1893 at age 28. Henry was president of the Price-Teeple Piano Company. William had two children from his first marriage, Albert and Kathleen, who lived with their mother, Lucy. The couple made their home in Chicago and had no children of their own.

To be honest, I couldn’t find much about Hennie. She did write two books, “Sketches in Lyric Prose and Verse” in 1920 and “Ravelings in Rhyme” in 1910. I can see how ladies of that era might have enjoyed reading them. I could not track down any of her musical compositions.

When she died on Feb. 4, 1923 at age 58, this was her obituary in the Hickory (North Carolina) Daily Record.

While her funeral was held at the chapel at Chicago’s Graceland Cemetery, Hennie’s body was brought home to Oakdale Cemetery for burial beside her parents. Her husband, William, died in 1936.

Life is Just a Patchwork Quilt

There’s a bit of verse written by Hennie on the back of her grave marker. But I found this one from her poem “The Patchwork Quilt” that I particularly liked.

I’ll be back next time with more stories from Oakdale Cemetery.

After refueling over lunch, Mom and I decided to hit one more cemetery before calling it a day. Ebenezer United Methodist Church Cemetery (EUMCC) is not far from Partner’s Pizza so it was an easy stop to make.

EUMC is still an active church with a rich heritage. It was established around 1882. According to a church history on their web site, EUMC was originally known as Old Field Church. Charter members were G. M. Davis, James Davis, Frank Davis, Barney Tinsley, James Speer, William S. Brown, F. B. Brown and Ed Speer. The 1884 dedication service included the hymn “Nearer My God to Thee”.

Polly Palmore donated the acre that the church was built on, and Chub Davis provided the adjacent land for the cemetery. According to Find a Grave, there are about 530 marked graves on the property. It is in good condition and looked to have been recently mowed. I saw a few recent burials.

A Tragic Fire

One of the first stones we happened upon was for a woman and a child. I felt a wave of sadness, knowing that something bad had likely happened to them. Unfortunately, when I looked into their story, my fears were confirmed.

Born in 1911, Elizabeth “Bessie” Parrott was the daughter of William and Rachel Lavonia Adams Parrott. She married Ralph “Boots” Pope, a Fayette County farmer. They had a son, Ralph Gerald Pope, on March 11, 1939. They lived in a four-room house on the Redwine farm where Ralph worked.

On Dec. 4, 1942, Ralph said goodbye to Bessie and little Ralph, then headed with a co-worker to fetch a load of hay. An hour later, the overseer caught sight of the Pope house and it was engulfed in flames.

Despite all attempts, Bessie and little Ralph could not be saved. The cause of the fire was deemed accidental. Robert was now a widower at 31.

Bessie and their son were laid to rest together at EUMCC. Ralph did not remarry (as far as I know). He worked as a freight handler in his later years. He died at age 82 on Oct. 23, 1994. He was buried beside Bessie and little Ralph.

Accidental Shooting

We like to think that deaths caused by playing with guns is a modern occurrence, but it has been happening for decades. I only learned this week that this was the case for college senior Willie Sam Loyd.

Born in 1882, Willie Sam Loyd was the youngest son of Samuel and Sarah Loyd. The Loyds were well-to-do farmers in Fayette County. Willie attended the University of Georgia in Athens and was approaching graduation when tragedy struck.

On the evening of Nov. 5, 1905, Willie was relaxing with his roommate in their dorm when he drew out a pistol and began playing with it. Despite his roommate’s warning to stop, Willie continued and accidentally shot himself below his stomach. He died about an hour later, despite medical efforts to save him. Willie was 23 when he died.

Willie’s parents were understandably heartbroken. Their older son, Thomas, had died two years earlier at age 45. A delegation of Willie’s classmates accompanied him as his remains were taken home to Fayetteville. Many people from near and far attended his funeral at EUMCC.

Willie’s mother, Samuel, died on June 30, 1909 at age 72. His mother, Sarah, died on Aug. 22, 1910 at age 69.

Grave of a Murderer

At the end of last week’s post, I mentioned that I was going to follow up on a convicted killer buried at this cemetery. If you want the full story about the murder, please read my post from May 2019 about Bethany United Methodist Church Cemetery. It’s also located in Fayette County.

In that post, I told the story of Acey Edward “Eddie” Banks on May 15, 1931. He was only 38 a the time. Eddie was married to Lexie Mae Griffin Banks. Lexie’s mother, Emma Griffin, lived in fear of her husband (and Lexie’s father), Charlie Griffin. She was living at her daughter’s home when Charlie arrived and tried to take her home.

Eddie stepped in to protect Emma and Charlie killed him, fleeing into the nearby woods. He was caught and convicted of murder, then sent to prison. Amazingly, he only served seven years and was released. Eddie was buried at Bethany United Methodist Church Cemetery. Lexie, who remarried, died in 1964 and is buried with Eddie.

Charlie died a few years after his release on Jan. 11, 1945 at age 70. The epitaph on his marker is a familiar one: “Remember me as you pass by.” Unfortunately, the Banks family likely remembers him painfully for what he did to Eddie.

Emma, like her daughter, lived until 1964 and was 89 when she died. She is also buried at EUMCC.

The Short Life of Simmie Griffin

I didn’t connect Charlie Griffin to the Banks murder until several days later. I was distracted by another grave marker that I saw at EUMCC for a young man named Simmie Griffin, who was Charlie’s nephew. Simmie was the son of Charlie’s brother, Clifford.

It was what was inscribed on Simmie’s stone that stopped me in my tracks. I have never (or since) read anything like this before.

I don’t know how Clifford and Nancy met. I don’t know if they were both born deaf and mute or if they were became so later in life. It appears they both lived in Mitchell County. I wondered if perhaps they met at a school for the deaf but I could find nothing. They married in Dekalb County in 1902. Together, they would have five children. They did not let their disabilities stop them from living happy and active lives.

Simmie was the second oldest of the children. According to what I read, he served as the “spokesman” for his parents and made sure the household ran smoothly. From what I can tell, neither he or his siblings had any hearing/speech/sight issues. At night, when his baby sister would cry, Simmie would take her to their mother because she couldn’t hear her.

On April 22, 1918, Simmie went out for a ride with local automobile salesman Thomas Nipper. They were struck at a railroad crossing and Simmie was killed. He was only 14 years old. Thomas Nipper, while injured, survived. He would die a few months later on Oct. 22, 1918 at age 23 after a long illness. He is buried at Fayetteville City Cemetery.

“We Have No Simmie Now”

I don’t normally post this lengthy of an obituary, but in this case, I thought it was worth sharing.

Sometime between 1920 and 1930, the Griffins moved to Cincinnati, Ohio where both Clifford and Nancy took factory jobs. Clifford died in 1942 and his body was sent home to Fayetteville for burial at EUMCC. Despite the fact her name is on Clifford’s marker, after Nancy died in 1963, she was buried at Arlington Memorial Gardens in Mount Healthy, Ohio (near Cincinnati).

End of the Road

This wraps up my Fayette County “hop” with my Mom from October 2019. We’ve been on a few since then, and I’ll be sharing them in due time.

Next time, I’ll be taking you with me out of Georgia. The angel statue immortalized in Thomas Wolfe’s autobiographical novel, Look Homeward, Angel, now marks a grave at the Oakdale Cemetery in Hendersonville, N.C. Lots of stories to share from that cemetery!

To be honest, I hadn’t planned to do a Part II on this cemetery. I thought I’d covered all the bases there in Part I.

Then I found a story about two of County Line Christian Church Cemetery’s burials that got my attention. I felt it was important enough to dig into what happened because (sadly) this kind of thing is not as unusual as you might think. In fact, it will come up again in the next cemetery we visited.

You might remember back in 2016, I wrote about Wyuka Cemetery in Lincoln, Neb. Charles Starkweather, a spree killer who murdered 11 people with his girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate between January 21 and 29 in 1958, is buried there. He was executed in the electric chair in 1959. At the time, I was stunned to learn that five of Starkweather’s victims are also buried there. In fact, his grave is quite close to three of them. With Wyuka being so big, that surprised me.

As it turns out, both a man who committed a murder and his victim are buried at CLCC Cemetery. I stumbled upon the story quite by accident.

The Short Life of Charlie E. Coggin

I must note that sometimes Charlie’s last name appears as Coggin, Coggins and even Goggins in some newspaper reports I found.

The son of farmer Augustus Abraham “A.A.” Coggin and Henrietta Lona Daniell Coggin-Banks, Charlie was born on Sept. 30, 1892 in Griffin, Ga. That’s not far from Brooks. He fell in the middle of the birth order of the Coggin family.

A.A. died in May 1917 as World War I loomed on the horizon. Charlie enlisted in the U.S. Army on Sept. 18, 1917. His draft card indicates he was disabled. Despite that, Charlie was assigned to the 122nd Infantry, Company F. He did not serve overseas, largely because of his poor health. He was honorably discharged on Oct. 14, 1918. Oddly enough, his service record indicates he was “37.5 disabled”.

About a year later, Charlie married Mattie Mae Smith. They had one son, Thomas Elliott “Eddie” Coggin.

Murder or Self Defense?

I’ve read several articles about what took place on Oct. 22, 1921. There are some differences of opinion on when who did what to whom. Both Charlie Coggin and a man named Grover Ison, 26, were in a store in nearby Senoia. Like Charlie, Ison was a World War I veteran but he actually served overseas with the American Expeditionary Force in France.

One indisputable fact is that Ison shot and killed Charlie. Some said he did it because Charlie hit him with a baseball bat and Grover responded in self defense. Others said Charlie had asked Grover (alleged to be drinking and cussing in the store) to stop using inappropriate language in front of his family, and Grover had shot him in response. Some alleged that a brother-in-law of Charlie had hit Grover with the baseball bat AFTER he’d shot Charlie.

Grover Ison went on trial in the Spalding County Superior Court the following month and despite his pleas of self defense, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. He got a new trial but was convicted again in February 1923 and began serving his sentence in August 1923. Then in December 1929, he was denied clemency by the state prison board.

In the meantime, Charlie was buried at CLCC Cemetery. His marker notes that he served in the Co. 10 Development Battalion. I saw no reference to this in his service records.

Charlie’s wife, Mattie, remarried to Sam Gosa in 1923. They had 10 children together. They lived in Spalding County for many years. Mattie died in 1968 and is buried in Marietta National Cemetery with Sam, who died in 1958.

Buried in the Same Cemetery

In March 1930, Grover Ison was paroled and returned to Brooks. He married Inez Malone on April 1, 1930. I am guessing he knew her before he went to prison. They had a son and daughter together. According to the 1950 U.S. Census, he was operating a pulpwood business in Spalding County. He died on May 1, 1953 at the age of 60. Inez died in 1966 at age 70. Both are buried in the CLCC Cemetery. I did not get a picture of their graves.

I don’t know how close Charlie’s grave is to Grover’s grave. The area around Brooks where the Isons and Coggins families lived is not heavily populated. Everybody knew everybody. I cannot imagine coming face to face in a store with the man who had shot and killed my husband. Or in a church. Or at an event. But it’s likely that this happened.

Charlie and Mattie’s son, Eddie, grew up and worked in a mill in Griffin. He married and moved to Magee, Miss. During World War II, he served with distinction and received the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. He died on Sept. 19, 2005 and is buried with his wife, Leola, in Magee Cemetery in Mississippi.

Part of me wonders if Mattie ever took Eddie to visit Charlie’s grave and if he asked his mother what happened. Did she point over to where his father’s killer was buried? The thought of it saddens me.

What Happened to Christia?

I’m sharing this last story as an example of something I call “the mystery surviving spouse”. You can find one of these in almost every decent-sized cemetery. A grave marker in which the name and dates of the deceased is on one side, and the name and birth day of the spouse is beside it. Only there is no death date on it.

There are many reasons for this. Sometimes the surviving spouse marries someone else and ends up buried elsewhere with that person, sharing their monument. Sometimes the surviving spouse doesn’t remarry but ends up buried in a different cemetery. More often than not, the surviving spouse doesn’t remarry, dies, but nobody bothers to get their side of the monument engraved. As a result, there’s a mystery.

In the case of Christia Ann Scott Chappell, I tried to find out what happened to her with little success.

Christia was the second wife of William “Henry” Chappell, whose first wife Jane died on New Year’s Eve 1900 at age 38. She and Henry had five daughters together. She is buried in Banks Cemetery in Fayetteville.

Henry remarried to Christia Odell on May 4, 1902. She was 38 and Henry was 41. They had one son, Roy, the following year.

By the time of the 1910 U.S. Census, only one of Henry’s daughters, Ethel, was still living at home. Henry died on Nov. 21, 1921 at age 60. His obituary mentions him having a wife (no name) and the names of his five daughters. Roy is not mentioned. Henry was buried in the CLCC Cemetery. Three of his daughters are also buried there.

Christia lived with son Roy and his family in Newnan, (he married Janie Whatley in 1924), through 1940. After that, she disappears. She does not appear on the 1950 U.S. Census as living with him. I could find no death record or obituary for her. Roy died in 1961 and is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Newnan.

It’s quite possible that Christia is buried beside Henry. But if that’s the case, why was her death date never engraved on their shared marker? I have no idea. It’s sad to think that nobody cared enough to add it. But it happens often.

Lunch!

By this time, Mom and I had earned a much deserved lunch at our favorite pizza place in Fayetteville, Partner’s Pizza. Cemetery hopping can get quite tiring and we needed to refuel.

Next time, I’ll be visiting the last stop on our Fayette County hop at Ebenezer United Methodist Church Cemetery. I’ve got a few interesting stories just waiting to be told.

Our next stop before a well-earned lunch was the cemetery at County Line Christian Church just below Brooks.

What little I found about this cemetery comes from a August 25, 2015 article in The Citizen newspaper:

The church is considered the second oldest Christian church in Georgia, its founding members among the earliest pioneers in Fayette County. Some of those pioneer founders included James W. Lynch, George Lynch, Isham Moody, Kirkland Leach, and J.W. Westmoreland. It is said the church was organized about 1828 in the shop of a Dr. Westmoreland and met there until 1843 when J. W. Westmoreland gave five acres of land (the present site) upon which to build a church. The first building was built of logs and was destroyed by fire in 1845.  

The church was rebuilt in 1848 and remodeled in 1875. The structure has remained in the same site since that time.

The oldest marked grave here is for John Westmoreland, who lived from 1756 to 1816. He may have been the father of J.W. Westmoreland (mentioned above). I suspect that this marker was added at some later date because it looks too new to be that old.

Find a Grave shows that there are nearly 700 graves here. While I did not find the graves of the founders listed above, I did see their last names on several stones. You can see Moody in the bottom left of the photo below.

Wooden Grave Markers

If you’ve read my blog for a while, you know that encountering a wooden grave marker is almost unheard of these days. While wooden markers were often used back in the day, they didn’t usually stand the test of time. So when I see one intact, I’m genuinely surprised.

For whatever reason, the two wooden grave markers for George Washington Jefferson Lynch and his wife, Sallie Warner Lynch, have stone markers in front of them. My guess is that family didn’t want their graves to end up being lost to time and eternity so they had new ones made. That’s the kind of decision I admire because it means we get to see something that rarely survives.

Born in 1848, George was the son of George W. Lynch. It’s possible that this George Lynch is the son of the man who helped found the church back in 1843. He married Sallie in 1874. The couple had seven children together.

George died at age 74 on Sept. 14, 1921. Oddly enough, his death certificate lists no cause of death at all. Sallie died almost five years later on Aug. 6, 1926 at age 66.

Buried between them is their unnamed infant grandson, the child of Joe and Clara Lynch. The child died on Dec. 14, 1933.

Anonymous Graves

It’s fortunate that the Lynches knew who was buried beneath those wooden markers. Many times, the identity of the deceased is lost forever. It’s something I see if many cemeteries. Here are a few examples.

I’ve shared photos of shell graves before. Many folks assume shell graves are usually located near the beach, but I’ve seen them hundreds of miles inland. The reasons why people used shells to decorate graves are many, the most common (and logical) reason being that it’s what they had. Simple as that.

In this case, these two were possibly a mother and child since one grave is larger than the other. There is a marker for the larger one, but it’s now impossible to read. It may have never had any inscription.

Then there’s this type of grave, which is fairly common, a circle of stones grouped together. This could be a child’s grave due to the size, but I don’t know for sure. This is not a Southern phenomenon, either. I’ve seen them in Ohio and Oklahoma as well. Again, people were using what they had. Purchasing a marker may have been beyond their means at the time.

Two Brothers Marry Two Sisters

It’s not unusual for two brothers from one family to marry two sisters from another. It happened in my own family more than once. That was the case for South Carolina-born brothers Hosea (1817) and Benjamin Gray, Jr. (1819). The Gray family moved to Coweta County sometime in the 1840s.

Hosea married Sarah Freeman in 1843 and the couple had two children, Nancy (who died in 1854) and Benjamin (who died in 1892). Sarah died in 1855. Hosea then married Susan Elizabeth Kempson in 1856. They would have at least 10 children together.

Benjamin married Susan’s sister, Martha Catherine “Mary” Kempson, in 1862. They had two children, Nancy (1863) and Benjamin Jr. (1865). I’m not sure when Benjamin enlisted in the Confederate Army but he did so. He was attached to the Second Battalion of the Georgia Cavalry, Company C, also known as the “Sidney Johnston Avengers”. By this point, older men like Benjamin (who was 45) and young teens were enlisting in the Confederate Army to help the cause.

“Harvest of Death”

I could find few details about Benjamin’s war record, but I do know he died on Dec. 13, 1864. He either died in Grisworldville, Ga. (in Jones County) or in a military hospital near Macon. The Battle of Griswoldville took place on Nov. 22, 1864, which was the first battle of Sherman’s infamous March to the Sea. I had never heard of it before doing this research about Benjamin.

It was a devastating encounter for the Confederate soldiers, as described in Ryan Quint’s article on the “Emerging Civil War” web site:

As the Union soldiers policed the battlefield, they were horrified at the results. These men were veterans of many of Sherman’s campaigns, and they had seen their fair share of battlegrounds, but Griswoldville was different. One account wrote, “Old grey-haired and weakly looking men and little boys not over fifteen years old, lay dead or writhing in pain.” In front of the 100^th Indiana, Theodore Upson wrote that “It was a terrible sight…We moved a few bodies, and there was a boy with a broken arm and leg—just a boy 14 years old; and beside him, cold in death, lay his Father, two brothers, and an Uncle. It was a harvest of death.”

Benjamin was wounded at Griswoldville (an estimated 500 or so were wounded and 600 captured, with 51 dead). According to his wife’s obituary, he died in a military hospital in Macon but it also lists that he was a captain. So that may not be true. His body was brought back for burial in the CLCC Cemetery. Mary, his wife, gave birth to son Benjamin Jr. a few weeks later on Jan. 9, 1865.

Benjamin Gray Jr. died of typhoid fever in 1892. He is buried at Senioa Cemetery in neighboring Coweta County. Mary died in 1929 at age 93 at the home of her daughter, Nancy Gray Couch Wilkes. Mary is buried with Benjamin Jr. in Senoia Cemetery. Nancy died in 1948 and is buried in Atlanta’s Westview Cemetery.

Benjamin’s brother, Hosea, also served in the Confederacy but returned home alive. I’m not sure what unit he served in. Hosea and Susan’s daughter, Villular, was born in February 1864, just a month after her cousin Benjamin Jr.

According to Ancestry, on Oct. 5, 1866: “Villular was accidentally shot when someone left a gun on the bed. The covers got caught in the trigger and when the baby pulled on the covers, the gun went off and she was killed.”

Villular was originally buried on the property where the Grays lived but was later moved to CLCC Cemetery.

Hosea died on Dec. 14, 1902 at age 85. Wife Susan died on April 4, 1923. They are buried together at CLCC Cemetery.

A Father and Son Killed

When I saw the grave of little Floyd Freeman, I wondered if perhaps he had died of Spanish Flu. He died in 1919, so it’s not an off-the-wall theory. However, when I scanned the local newspaper to find out if that was so, I found a story that broke my heart.

Floyd died a few hours after he and his father, James, were hit by a passenger train while they were in their buggy crossing the tracks. James was killed instantly.

James is buried near Floyd with his wife, Alice Reeves Freeman. She died in 1942 at age 71.

I’ve got more to share from County Line Christian Church Cemetery. I hope you’ll join me for Part II.

Note: Tomorrow marks the 12th anniversary of this blog! WOW! I never imagined I would have enough to write about to fill 12 years but here we are. I hope you’ll stick around for more stories from the stones in 2025 and beyond — Traci

First, my apologies for not writing a post since early October 2024! I’ve never gone that long without doing so but sometimes life gets in the way of your plans. A stress fracture in my left foot certainly threw me off. At any rate, happy New Year!

Second, this post contains stories about Confederate veteran graves. If that is a trigger for you, you may wish to stop reading now.

Mom and I stopped by Brooks City Cemetery on our multi-cemetery “hop” around Fayette County, not knowing what to expect. I knew it contained several Confederate veteran graves. A large sign tells you that the cemetery is maintained by the General McLaws Camp #29 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. It also states that 18 Confederate veterans are buried there. Find a Grave lists about 120 memorials for Brooks City Cemetery. That’s about all I know.

Namesake of Brooks

There are four Brooks graves at this cemetery and one of them happens to be the person for whom the town was named. His marker isn’t very grand so I had no idea who he was when I photographed it back in 2019.

I’m not sure where Hillery Brooks was born but he married Nancy Anderson in Oglethorpe County in 1827. They lived in Henry County and started a family. He and Nancy moved to Fayette County in the 1850s, following some of their now married daughters. The town was called Sharon Grove at the time. The Brooks family thrived and Hillery was active in their Baptist church.

In 1871, the Savannah, Griffin, and Alabama Railroad finished construction through Sharon Grove (which had begun before the Civil War). Hillery donated the land for the depot with the only condition being that it be called Brooks Station. Over time, Sharon Grove began to be called Brooks Station and eventually was shortened to Brooks in 1907.

As a side note, the Brooks family is thought to have been the first in town to have a well on their property. Before then, folks carried water from nearby streams.

“The Good Man is Gone From Us”

Hillery Brooks died in 1881 at age 75, after suffering a bout of dropsy. This obituary from the Newnan Herald describes his funeral.

Wife Nancy lived another nine years, dying on July 1, 1890 after a “lingering illness.” I suspect that both Hillery and Nancy’s markers were made at the same time since they are so much alike. I like the motif of the finger-pointing hand emerging from an open Bible.

Hillery and Nancy’s son, John R. Brooks, is also buried here. A Confederate veteran, he served Georgia’s 53rd Infantry, Company C. They were known as the “Fayette Planters”. In June 1864, he was held prisoner in Cold Harbor, Va. but was eventually released. He died on May 26, 1936 at age 90.

A Teenage Soldier

James Madison Bridges has two markers. One that he shared with his wife, Maenette, and his Confederate grave marker beside it.

Born in 1847 in Fayette County to Robert Bridges and Sallie Price Bridges, James had many siblings. He enlisted in the Confederate Army in June 1863 in nearby Griffin, and was assigned to Company E of the Second Regiment of the Georgia Cavalry. They were also known as the “Fayette Dragoons”. He would have been only 16 at the time.

I don’t know much about James’ service in the Civil War. He surrendered with his company in April 1865 in Greensboro, NC. Then he returned to Fayette County and married Mary Antoinette (Maenette) Cobb in April 1869.

The couple farmed next door to James’ parents. By 1880, they had a son and two daughters. According to the 1910 U.S. Census, they had 12 children altogether, with seven of them surviving.

James died of paralysis on February 3, 1896. It’s possible he had a stroke that caused it but I can’t be sure. I could not find any documentation to back up the statement in James’ obituary that he represented Fayette County in the Georgia legislature. But he was clearly loved by his neighbors.

Maenette did not remarry but continued living in Fayette County. She applied for a Confederate widow’s pension in 1910 and it appears that she did receive it. Maenette died on April 12, 1919. Brooks, like the rest of America, was suffering through the Spanish Flu pandemic at the time. She was 73. James and Maenette share this marker.

Confederate Widow

Finally, I want to share the story of another couple, Kenion and Nettie Brooks. But in this case, Kenion went to war and never returned.

Born on May 2, 1829 in Fayette County, Kenion (sometimes spelled Kinion) Abraham Brooks married Parthenia Ann (Nettie) Mitchell in 1851. She was born around 1836, so Nettie was a young bride. The couple would have at least seven children together.

Enlisting in May 1862, Kenion served in Company C of the Georgia 53rd Infantry. This is the same Fayette Planters that John R. Brooks (mentioned above) served in. He saw a great deal of action, fighting in the Battle of Malvern Hill, the Battle of Stone Mountain (Va.), and the Battle of Sharpsburg (Antietam).

But it was at the Battle of Salem Church (Chancellorsville, Va.) that would seal Private Banks’ fate. From May 3 to May 4, 1863, the 53rd lost 15 men and 105 were wounded. Kenion Banks was among the wounded and later died at Spotsylvania (Va.) Courthouse on May 7, 1863. He was 34.

I believe that the actual burial site of Kenion Banks is unknown, somewhere in Spotsylvania. His marker at Brooks Cemetery is most likely a cenotaph because of the words “In Memory Of” and was placed at a later date.

Back in Brooks, Nettie was pregnant and caring for their children. She gave birth to Kenyon Bradford Banks on July 16, 1863. They lived with her father, Francis, for a time. She died on July 30, 1885 at age 50.

I think Nettie’s grave marker is one of the loveliest I’ve seen. The motif of the hand clutching a bouquet of flowers with one finger pointing up is not one I see very often. It could mean that God plucked a beautiful flower to take to Heaven. I do believe Nettie’s children loved her very much to have provided such a thoughtful stone for their mother.

Next time, Mom and I will take a walk through Fayette County’s County Line Cemetery.

Our next stop lay just a little southwest from Woolsey in Brooks, Ga., an equally small town. I knew nothing about White Water Baptist Church Cemetery (WBCC), but I wanted to walk around.

Before the area around Brooks began to be inhabited by white settlers in the early 1800s, the Creek Indians lived there. Around 1850, a planter named Hillery Brooks sold the lot upon which the new train depot was to be built. He asked that it be called Brooks Station. It was shortened to Brooks in 1905.

Until 1921, cotton was king in Brooks until the boll weevil destroyed many of the crops, placing the town in an economic depression. Brooks lost its charter but began to emerge out of the depression in 1939 after electricity was installed in the town. Brooks received its town charter again.

These days, Brooks has a population of around 600 people. That may not seem like a lot but that’s double the number since 2013.

Whitewater Baptist Church

I could not find much information about Whitewater Baptist Church. It was constituted in 1823. Currently, it’s part of a small network of churches that operate under the umbrella of Crossroads Church.

According to Find a Grave, there are about 500 memorials listed. The earliest graves appear to be for Civil War soldiers who died around 1865.

The Dunn Family

There are 48 Dunns buried at WBCC. Several of them served in the Civil War in the Confederate Army. Some came home alive, others did not. Within the Dunns, they must have been big fans of Kentucky-born politician Henry Clay because several of them have names that contain “Henry Clay” within them.

Born in Fairfield Co, S.C. to Stephen Smith Dunn and Drucilla Ross Dunn in 1822, Alexander “Alex” Hamiter Dunn married Jenny Louisa Westbrook around 1840 in Henry County, Ga. William was born in 1841 and Henry Clay “Bub” Dunn was born in 1842. Jenny died in 1852. Alex remarried the following year to Mary Ann Elizabeth Akins.

Both William and Bub served as privates in the 30th Georgia Infantry, Co. B. Bub died at age 24 in 1867. I don’t have an exact death date for him, unfortunately. He must have returned home after the war. Details are unknown.

Then there’s a marker for a Henry Clay Dunn. According to the dates, he was born in 1844 and died in 1865. He, too, served in Co. B of the 30th Georgia Infantry.

I found documentation of the names of those who served in Company B of the 30th Infantry. A Corporal H.C. Dunn is listed as dying in 1896. A Private Clay Dunn, wounded in battle, died in 1894. Private Alex Dunn is listed as having died in 1888. W.S. Dunn is listed as having died in 1864.

Of this information, I can only confirm that Alex Dun did indeed die in 1888 in Brooks.

William Samuel Dunn’s marker states he died in 1906.

Then we have William Henry Clay Dunn, son of Joel Dunn and Sarah Smith Dunn. Born in 1808, he also served in the 30th Georgia Infantry and died in 1869.

In 2009, John Rigdon wrote “Historical Sketch & Roster of the 30th Georgia Infantry” and provided more information. Oddly, I did not find Alex listed anywhere in his publication.

Dunn, Henry C., Jr. 2d Corporal Sept. 25,1861. Discharged May 14, 1862. Reenlisted as a private May 14, 1862. Sick in camp at Savannah, Ga. Dec. 31, 1862. Died in 1865.

Dunn, William H. C. private September 25, 1861. Wounded in forehead. resulting in loss of sight of right eye, at Chickamauga, Ga. September 19, 1863. Captured at Marietta, Ga. June 19, 1864 . Paroled at Camp Morton, Inf. and forwarded via Baltimore, Md. to Point Lookout, Md. for exchange, Feb. 19, 1865.

Dunn, William S. private Sept, 25, 1861. Appointed Corporal. Captured at Nashville, Tenn. Dec. 16, 1864. Released at Camp Chase, Ohio on June 12,1865.

I’m sure someone with a subscription to Fold3.com and more experience with military records can somehow sort out how these Dunns are related. But I didn’t have time or the patience. There are several other Confederate veterans buried at WBCC, but they don’t appear to have served in the 30th Georgia Infantry as the Dunns did.

Death of a Railway Man

Unfortunately, when I see that a young man died in his 20s during the later 1800s, I wonder if it was the result of some kind of railroad accident. I am proven right more often than not, sadly.

Born in February 1875 to Jackson Harwell and Rebecca McLean Harwell, Charles “Charlie” Harwell grew up in Brooks. Rebecca died when he was five years old. He married Sallie Rogers the day after Christmas in 1897 and they had at least three children together. Their last child, Reba, died on June 13, 1902 at the age of seven months. She is buried in WBCC.

At the time of Reba’s death, Charlie was working the Central Railroad of Georgia. On March 6, 1903, he died in a terrible accident near Chattanooga, Tenn.

Charlie was buried next to Reba at WBCC.

That wasn’t the end of the tragedy for the Harwell. Charlie and Sallie’s son, Robert, died at age 30 on Oct. 13, 1930 in a car accident in Statesville, N.C. I don’t know where he is buried. Sallie may have remarried or died, I could not trace her after Charlie’s death.

A Mother and Son

Nearby is the grave of Charlie’s older sister, Mary Harwell Jones. Born in 1860, she married James H. Jones in October 1880 at age 20. She gave birth to a son, James, on Nov. 1, 1881.

For reasons unknown, Mary died on Feb. 21, 1882. Her grave marker is inscribed with this unusual epitaph:

She died in triumph of the glory world and requested her companions and friends meet her there.

Little James died the next day, he was only three months old. Perhaps there was an illness that swept through the Jones home.

Mary’s husband James H. Jones married Elizabeth Lee Posey on Christmas Day 1883. She passed away in 1912 and is buried in Brooks’ County Line Cemetery. He married a third time to Minnie Lee Thomas. He died at age 83, having been involved in a car accident in late December then succumbed to a heart attack on Jan. 15, 1940. He is buried with his second wife, Elizabeth, at County Line Cemetery.

The Padgett Sisters

There are 35 Padgetts buried at WBCC. When I photographed these two graves of the Padgett sisters, I wasn’t paying attention to the dates. But this week when I went back to check them, an interesting situation began to unfold.

Civil War veteran John W. Padgett married Martha Cornelia Dunn in 1870 when Martha was only 17. They proceeded to have at least a dozen children. It doesn’t appear that any of them were twins, either.

Martha E. Padgett, their third child, was born on Feb. 25, 1876. For reasons unknown, Martha died on Nov. 6, 1893 at age 17.

Vada C. “Vadie” Padgett, their last child, was born on Dec. 10, 1896. That’s three years after Martha E. died, so the two never knew each other. Vadie died at the Padgett home from a fever on Sept. 9, 1915 at age 18.

As I looked at the Padgett family tree, I realized another sister was buried nearby. Eighth Padgett child Cora “Ottie” Padgett, born on May 13, 1889, married Nathan Hatton on Dec. 4, 1910. She gave birth to a daughter, Florene, in 1913 and a son, John, arrived in 1914.

Ottie died of typhoid fever on July 9, 1915 at age 26. That was less than two months before her sister Vadie died.

Nathan remarried to Mattie Sue Ivy Horton and they had two daughters. He died in 1960 at age 72. He is buried with Mattie at WBCC.

There were more stories waiting to be told at WBCC but it was time to head to another cemetery. Our next stop was Brooks City Cemetery.

The next stop on my Fayette County, Ga. cemetery hopping adventure was Antioch Baptist Church Cemetery. Just down the rode from Woolsey Cemetery. The Sams surname is also here, along with Spurlin, Morris, Callaway, and Whitaker.

This cemetery stands out because it has two parts. When Antioch Baptist Church was established on March 5, 1829, five of the 19 charter members were black. The rest were white. While the cemetery is now integrated, it was segregated at the time of the church’s formation.

I found online the original list of charter members of the church and the first names of those five black members are listed, and who they are a “servant” of. No last names. I assume that means they were slaves unless they were free persons of color (FPOC), who did exist at that time. But most FPOC at would have had their last names listed and they wouldn’t have been servants for whites. They also lived in large cities like Savannah and Charleston, S.C. A few lived in Atlanta. Not in a tiny town like Woolsey.

From what I can tell, black and white members were buried separately. It looks like someone had done ground penetrating radar (GPR) and crosses were placed on unmarked graves. I don’t know what the different colors signify (blue/red/white). Among them are a handful of stone markers with names/dates. According to the sign (see above), the first person of color was buried there in 1848.

Sadly, I could find very little information about the few people who do have stones here. One example is Clifford Watkins. She was the daughter of Lizzie and John Tombs. She died on Sept. 30, 1911. So she was only 18 when she died. Her grandparents (and possibly her parents) were likely slaves.

I had better luck with Pinkie Ray, the wife of Charles Ray, whom she married at 15. According to the 1910 Census, the couple had seven children. Pinkie died at at age of 32 in December 1918. Her cause of death may have been Spanish Flu.

Because there are no dates on this stone, I could find nothing about Charaty Whitaker. I only know that she was 60 when she died.

As you might imagine, the number of white grave markers was much higher. Find a Grave has about 600 memorials recorded, with the earliest being an infant grave from 1830.

The Sams Family

The grave marker for Julia Sams got my attention because it is cross-shaped and has that woodsy Arts and Crafts style that was common during the era. The daughter of Christopher Columbus “Lum” Sams and Sarah Martha Ozborn Sams, Julia was born on Feb. 4, 1867.

Julia’s obituary explained that she had long suffered from consumption (tuberculosis) and this it was the cause of her death on Nov. 4, 1897.

Her father’s large marker is nearby and it made me curious to know more about the man who had been named after the famous Italian explorer. As I began to look at the family tree, it got interesting quickly.

Julia’s mother, Sarah Martha Ozborn, first married Lum’s older brother Lt. William Joseph Sams. They had five children together before William died at age 29 in Virginia during the Civil War in 1862. A first lieutenant in the Confederate Army, he served in the the Georgia 27th Infantry, Co. E. He is buried at Antioch Cemetery but I did not get a photo of his grave marker.

Lum’s first wife was Martha Whitaker Sims, and they wed in 1858. She died on Oct. 5, 1860 after giving birth to their second son, Matthew. Lum then married his brother’s widow, Sarah, in July 1865. The couple had six children together, with Julia being the eldest. So not only were their combined children half-siblings, they were also cousins.

Like his brother, Lum served in the Confederacy during the Civil War but with the Second Battalion of the Georgia Infantry. From what I can tell, he amassed a good bit of property over the years in Fayette, Clayton, and Coweta Counties.

Sarah died at age 62 in 1899. There may have been a third Mrs. Sams but I do know that his last wife was Eliza Connelly, who he married in 1908. Lum died on March 16, 1910, according to his obituary. He was 74. The obituary also said Lum was married four times, which is why I mentioned a potential third Mrs. Sams.

I noticed there was a tree-shaped marker for a Lum Ballard and wondered if he was connected to Lum Columbus. He is. Lum’s step-daughter (and niece) Ada Elvira (born in 1855), named her son after him.

The son of Ada and her husband, Washington Augustus Ballard, Lum Ballard born on Feb. 3, 1879. He married Lois Wallace in July 1901. They had a son, whom was also named Christopher Columbus “Lummie” Ballard. Lum (his father) died on Dec. 6, 1902 at age 23. His obituary did not mention his cause of death.

Ada’s brother, Matthew, born in 1853, has one of the handsomest monuments in the cemetery. That often indicates wealth or a remarkable death. I was right about that, as I soon learned.

An Abrupt Death

Matthew was a much-respected farmer in Fayette County. He married Ida Gay in 1873 and the couple had several children together. His nickname was Babe. Then I found this article about his death, which happened on Dec. 6, 1900.

I don’t know what happened to Will Patterson or if he was charged in any way. He may have claimed self defense in the matter.

You might recognize the last name of Gay. Ida, Matthew’s wife, was the niece of the Gay siblings I wrote about last week that are buried at Woolsey Cemetery. She did not remarry after her husband’s death. She died at age 77 in 1933 and is buried with Matthew.

Rev. James Spurlin

Born in North Carolina in 1802, James M. Spurlin wed Mary “Polly” Ann Williams in Jasper, Ga. in 1826. They moved to Chambers, Ala. and began raising a family. According to his Find a Grave memorial, James was a missionary to the Creek Indians at some point. He was ordained in the ministry in 1842 and served as pastor of High Pine Baptist Church in Randolph County, Ala.

By the 1850s, the Spurlins had moved to Troup County, Ga. and Rev. Spurlin was pastor of State Line Baptist Church. Sometime in the 1850s, they moved to Fayette County. According to minutes I found, Rev. Spurlin was appointed the superintendent of Antioch Baptist Church’s Sunday School in 1859.

He served as a private in the 13th Georgia Infantry, Co. F, during the Civil War. Some of his sons also served. I believe at some point, he became pastor of Antioch Baptist Church. But he was also a farmer.

Rev. Spurlin died on July 30, 1887 at age 85. I was not surprised to find that the Rev. Isaac G. Woolsey, pastor of Woolsey Baptist Church, preached the sermon at his funeral. I have no doubt the two men were likely good friends.

Rev. Spurlin is buried beside his youngest son, Reuben, who died just a few months later on Oct. 16, 1887 at age 36. Polly Spurlin died at age 84 on April 6, 1892. She is buried with her husband and son.

Confederate Widow

I was taken with the style of Keziah Callaway’s marker and had to find out more about her.

Born in Hancock County in 1832, Keziah was the daughter of Elijah and Edna Turner. She grew up in Dekalb County and married William Monroe Callaway at some point before 1856, when their son Thomas Jefferson Callaway was born. The couple had a daughter, Mary Jane, in 1859. They settled in Webster County.

During the Civil War, William served in the Seventh Georgia Infantry, Co. K. His stone says he was a sergeant but records indicate he was a private. He died on Jan. 7, 1862 in a hospital in Richmond, Va. He is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Richmond. He was 25 when he died.

I’m guessing that Keziah had family in Fayette County and moved her children from Webster County to Woolsey be closer to them. There is a marker for a Keziah Malinda “Kissie” Morris Turner (1847-1922) at the cemetery. Turner was Keziah Callaway’s maiden name.

When I looked at the 1870 U.S. Census, Keziah Callaway was living next door to the J.G. Morris family. J.G. Morris was Kissie Turner’s father. His wife was Sarah J Callaway Morris. Perhaps Sarah was related to Keziah’s late husband William Callaway.

Keziah Callaway died on March 9, 1877 at the age of 44. That same year, her son Thomas married Telitha Preston. Her daughter, Mary Jane, wed Telitha’s brother Oliver Preston in 1882.

I’ve got a few more stops to make on my Fayette County “hop” so join me for another next week.

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.

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.

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 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.

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’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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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