Behavior Cemetery is an active cemetery believed to have been in existence prior to the Civil War. It now serves as a burial ground for the descendants of the earliest Black families who have called Sapelo Island home.
Boston Gardner’s grave features a clock. The clock likely represents the passing of time.
The cemetery was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. The cemetery features many handmade markers that span several decades and more recent granite markers. Burial patterns are not in rows, and the older burials towards the middle and back of the cemetery.
Vases can be seen in many cemeteries, especially coastal ones. Liberty Bell, 1900-1912A fleur de lis next to the grave of Isabella Robinson, 1858-1889. In religion, it can represent the Holy Trinity. Additionally, some enslaved men and women were branded with a fleur de lis as punishment for trying to escape bondage. Glasco Grovner, 1856-1928Mary Lemon, 1906-1919. The star motif can be seen in many coastal cemeteries. Deacon Grant Johnson, 1892-1956. The letter stamping is common method to mark headstones.A modern mementoI believe these are giant checkers. If you look closely, you can see the rebar and the mesh. It gives an idea of how some of these markers were made.
Founded in the mid to late 1800s, Joe Pope Cemetery is one of several Gullah cemeteries on Hilton Head Island. The Queen’s Chapel AME Church owns the land, but it is maintained by the Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist Church.
Benjamin Singleton, 1906-1947Ben Singleton, 1857-1928. Notice the three linked chains which commonly represents the Odd Fellows and for fidelity, love, and truth. He was likely an Odd Fellow.Viola Mitchel, 1905-1958
Flanked by condos and one of the many golf courses on Hilton Island is an historic cemetery called Braddock’s Point Cemetery. While the earliest death date on a marker is during the Civil War, it is believed this also served as a burial ground for the people held in bondage at the nearby Braddock Point Plantation.
One of the burial practices with the Gullah Geechee people is to bury their loved ones with personal items. Sometimes it is the last dish they used, or another object of importance. Braddock’s Point Cemetery illustrates older and more modern interpretations of this practice.
My assumption is that there was a plate in this grave marker that was lost over time. This marker is one that I’ve seen repeated in several coastal cemeteries.One of the few markers with a corresponding footstone. A more modern take of using plates and seashells
Founded in 1852, the Piney Woods Primitive Baptist Church is located in the crossroads town called Rico, which now makes up the town Chattahoochee Hills. It has a mixture of box slab crypts, seashell-covered graves, field stone markers, and traditional late 1800s headstones.
The church moved from the site by 1856, but the cemetery remained active until 1900. One side of the cemetery contains burials with no markers. It’s believed they are for men and women born into slavery of the church’s founders and the town of Rico.
The seashell-covered graves were a Southern phenomenon. In the Christian tradition, they represent a person’s travels through life, and the final passage involves crossing water into the promised land. An article that provides further details can be read here.
While visiting Wayfare Primitive Baptist Church in Echols County, Georgia, I found this cast iron grave marker for the first time. I do not recall seeing them before this visit. The combination of headstone and foot stone made of metal was interesting to me. I noticed the patent date and researched who owned the patent.
James K. P. Shelton patented this marker in 1887 while living in Gaston, Alabama. The empty frame used to contain glass because Shelton thought it would be a safe way to keep a person’s photo. Unfortunately, the glass idea did not work. In one article, it mentions that at least in one county, no fully intact marker has been located. Based on what I’ve found online, I couldn’t find a documented one where the glass is intact, so if you ever see one, photograph it.
For approximately fifty years after the Civil War, a popular way to memorialize young children who had passed was a figure resting in a half shell. Prior to 1900, twenty-two percent of all children in the United States died before their first birthday.
The shell can represent a pilgrimage, spiritual protection, and innocence. Using those meetings, it makes sense this became a symbol for child graves.
Wealthier families would employ sculptors to make one that represented their child. Poor families, who wanted their children memorialized, adopted the shell as a way to mark graves when Sears Roebuck offered them in their catalog.
Here is a great academic article about these monuments by Annette Stott.
Cinderella Cooper (1885-1887), Evergreen CemeteryHarry (1886-1892) and Nellie (1888-1892) Roberts, Kennesaw City CemeteryApril Lee Porterfield (1975-1988), McDonough City CemeteryRuby Colley (1899-1890), Morgan Methodist Church Cemetery
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