Bachelor’s Retreat was established by John Verner in 1812. He had three sons, Ebenezer, Limuel, and David, who were bachelors well into adulthood. Ebenezer and Limuel eventually married, but by that time, the community was coined “Bachelor’s Retreat.” The bachelor part was eventually dropped, and the area is now known as Retreat.
Retreat Presbyterian Church is believed to have been started in 1836. some sources list the date as newer. Land was donated in the 1850s to build a house of worship, which was completed in 1860. Despite struggling to maintain members, the church remained active until 1968. The church has fallen into disrepair a couple of times, and it has been restored at least twice. The grounds are well-maintained. I did not venture up the steps of the Greek Revival building.
Piney Grove Cemetery is the last vestige of a historic Black community in Buckhead, Atlanta, Georgia. It is now surrounded by condos and within earshot of the Georgia 400 Highway. It’s only accessible by a grassy path along the backside of the condos.
It is believed the community dates back to the 1820s. At one time, the Piney Grove Missionary Baptist Church stood at the top of the cemetery’s hill. A storm destroyed it in 1996.
These aerial photos show how the land was built around the church in the cemetery. The 1993 aerial photo shows how close Georgia 400 is to the church and the cemetery. By 2002, the condominiums come into view around the cemetery.
For the past several years, a dedicated group of volunteers has been trying to reclaim the cemetery from nature. Many of the volunteers have ancestors who once attended the church and have family members buried in the cemetery.
Jane Wright, 1890-1910Ed Lucas, d. February 20, 1935Rev. Samuel Sawyer, d. March 1948, with an Eldren Bailey markerA broken market with hand etchingFrank Brown, d. June 29, 1942
Moses Harshaw (1794-1858) moved to Habersham County from North Carolina in 1822. He moved to the Nacoochee Valley, which is near Helen, Georgia. His wife, Nancy, their seven children, and the people he enslaved settled in the area to farm the land and mine for gold.
By 1837, Harshaw added more land to his holdings and built a home that still stands today. Now known as the Stovall House, the home is now a bed and breakfast in the Sautee Nacoochee Valley.
In addition to being a farmer, Stovall was a lawyer in Clarkesville. He unsuccessfully defended himself six out of seven times when he was charged with assault. His seventh charge never made it to court. One has to wonder if he was a horrible lawyer or if his crimes were so heinous that even being a rich white man could not protect him from being found guilty. It’s probably both.
All enslavers participated in a level of brutality just by participating in the mere act of holding people in bondage. Harshaw was known to be especially brutal. Stories of his treatment were well known across the valley.
In 1850, Georgia made divorce legal. Nancy Harshaw filed for separation on October 7, 1850. The paperwork stated they could not live peacefully together. The divorce was never finalized, but Nancy Harshaw got the last laugh when she had a wooden marker placed on his grave in The Olde Clarkesville Cemetery with the epitaph of “Died and Gone to Hell.”
Information for this post was pulled from the Olde Clarkesville Cemetery website.
I recently came across a response to a post about Moses Harshaw on Facebook that I want to challenge.
The responder was trying to claim that there was no proof that Harshaw was cruel and that he paid the people he enslaved $10 a month. According to the 1850 Slave Census, there are 25 people he holds in bondage. This would mean he was paying $250 a month. That is an unheard-of amount.
Additionally, the poster claimed that Harshaw freed those he held in bondage upon his death. Manumission laws prevented this. The first law was passed in 1818, and variations of it were in place until the Emancipation Proclamation (Source: The Georgia Archives).
The Old Clarkesville Cemetery underwent a restoration project in the ten years I first visited. In the summer of 2014, I documented my first visit. I just went back a couple of weeks ago to see what they have done.
The cemetery was initially the graveyard for the Clarkesville United Methodist Church, which relocated from the grounds in 1881.
Margaret Black, 1811-1855
While the most infamous resident is Moses Harshaw, the cemetery is the final resting place of Habersham County’s early white settlers. The earliest known burial is Calvin Hanks who was buried in 1834. The last burial was in 1945 for Mary King.
A view of the cemetery in 2014Another view of the cemetery in 2014This is a child’s marker with baby shoes in 2014.This is how it looks now in 2024. It is much easier to read now. It belongs to infant of Mr. and Mrs. Heard. This altar has been added to honor the 140 unidentified souls buried in the cemetery. While it isn’t officially known, it is assumed that most in this area are the formerly enslaved. This is one of the markers used to note where someone is buried. The steps leading from one section to another section of the cemetery.The graves of Eliza and Jarvis Van Buren. Jarvis was the cousin of President Martin Van Buren.
Alex Haley was born in Ithaca, New York, in 1921. Very early, he moved with his family to his maternal grandparents’ house in Henning, Tennessee. This 1918 American Craftsman served as a home base for the family for the next five years. It is also where Haley would hear the stories of his ancestors and other relatives. These stories inspired him to write Roots
The home was initially known as the WE Palmer because his grandfather was a successful businessman in town, and he built the home. The home was fully restored, and the furniture used by the family is in the house. The house was put in the National Re
Memorial Day was once called Decoration Day. In the United States, the first “official” Decoration Day was on May 30, 1868. However, that event was inspired by newly freed men and women in Charleston, South Carolina, who wanted to provide proper burials and commemorate the United States Colored Troops.
Today, Decoration Day lives on as a Southern, primarily Appalachian, and Liberian tradition to clean and decorate the cemetery where loved ones were laid to rest. Decoration Days usually happen in May (often around Memorial Day), but they often go later into the summer. Families will gather to clean, place flowers, worship, sing, and eat a meal. For some, this may be a solo family tradition, or they join the church and parade into the cemetery with the congregation, whose arms are filled with flowers. Sometimes these events coincide with a family reunion, so living ancestors can gather to clean and decorate their loved ones’ headstones.
While these mementos are not flowers, the blanket was new.
While in the United States, this practice can also be seen across the country in places like Texas, Utah, and Missouri. The Decoration Day celebration is believed to be tied to the Welsh Practice called “Flowering Sunday,” where town members would decorate graves with flowers on Palm Sunday. Other countries have similar practices, such as Mexico’s Day of the Dead, China’s Tomb-Sweeping Festival, and Japan’s Bon Festival.
Liberia celebrates Decoration Day on the second Wednesday in March. It has been a national holiday for the country since 1916. History indicates this practice was in place for many decades before it became a formal holiday.
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