Mitchell Grove Baptist Church is located on a dirt road south of Cuthbert, Georgia. There is not much printed information on the church. According to FindAGrave, the earliest burial was in 1893. A historic resources survey indicates the church was built in 1894. I believe that is the structure that is in overgrowth. The double front doors and multiple windows on the side of the building indicate a church.
The single-tower white building is in good condition and is still used by the congregation. Obituaries indicate that the cemetery is still active and has remained active throughout the church’s history. The cemetery has a mixture of vernacular and commercial headstones.
Carrie Bankston HarperMillie Nickson Died April 12, 1937Plot of Sammie and Ossie ThomasThe double front doors of what could be the original churchWhile hard to see, several windows could be seen on either side of the church
Thank you for joining me in my travels around the South. It’s been a great year of wandering backroads and a few main ones. If I learned anything, it is that people love abandoned houses, buildings with unexpected histories, and (in)famous graves.
Smith Hill Cemetery is located in the southwest part of Talbotton, Georgia. Like many cemeteries in Georgia, it illustrates a community’s history and funerary art changes through its landscape and the types of headstones found throughout the cemetery.
The vernacular marker for the Riley family
Located on a hill, the cemetery is almost completely overgrown except for specific cleared areas for more recent burials. It is said that this cemetery started as a cemetery for the enslaved, but this is frequently said about overgrown cemeteries that are a final resting place that serves the Black community. For this one, it is certainly possible because Talbot County’s 1860 Slave Census shows over 4,000 people held in bondage, and there was a plantation in the area. However, I did not locate any research that confirmed this. Still, it is a historic cemetery active since the late 1800s.
Iron fence around a plot
What is known is that this has served the Black community as a final burying place for several generations. Researching old obituaries, I found that church members from the nearby St. Phillips AME Church, Shady Grove Baptist Church, and other area churches are buried here. Some common names in the cemetery are Trice, Kimbrough, and Martin.
Rufus Martin (1903-1978)
There are many influences on markers, from Victorian-influenced ones to handmade ones, field stones, ironwork, and modern markers. A common form of handmade headstones in Georgia is the rounded concrete one. Often, marbles are used as a decorative addition to the marker. They are some of my favorite ones to find in a cemetery. The concrete headstone of the Riley family is a new favorite. The combination of the marbles and the line drawings makes it incredibly unique.
Jack Raines Sr. (1907-1978)
Additional markers in the cemetery include a painted blue Eldren Bailey marker, fieldstones, and a homemade obelisk with name plates made of professionally made marble. More recent burials use a common granite form found in almost any cemetery in the United States. However, a more recent handmade brick crypt was made for Willie Battle.
The Victorian-influenced marker of Mary Chapman, 1868-1905A fieldstone
If you are into exploring cemeteries, don’t skip the lesser-visited or overgrown ones. You never know what you might discover. Some people are a bit more daring than I am and will visit during high snake and tick season, but Smith Hill Cemetery is the perfect cemetery to visit in the fall and winter once there is a chill in the air.
The Eldren Bailey marker for Mr. Edmon Lamar (1899-1956)MotherHodges
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
Mount Ararat Cemetery was the first burial ground for Black citizens in Nashville, Tennessee. Opened in April 1869, the property was purchased for $5,000 by the Colored Sons of Relief Number One and the Colored Benevolent Society.
Over 15,000 burials are in the cemetery. Many of these are unmarked, but some markers showcase the wealth and prominence of some of the individuals.
Matilda Mulligan, d. 1883Dr. Robert Boyd (1855-1912) was a doctor educated at Meharry Medical College. He became a prominent citizen in Nashville and was considered an accomplished physician when he died. Lucia Harris (1837-1909) and Sarah Jones (1857-1888)The Nelson Merry Memorial Association erected the marker of Rev. Nelson Merry (1824-1884), founder of First Colored Baptist Church on Spruce Street, now known as First Baptist Street Capitol Hill.The sculpture of Rev. Merry on his obelisk makes it the most prominent marker in the cemetery. If you look closely on the right, you can see the outline of a cicada. Photographing the cemetery with thousands of flying cicadas was challenging.The vernacular marker of Jennetta HomanThe Victorian-influenced marker of Cora Haynes (1867-1889)May 17, 1929 announcement in the Nashville Banner
The hallmark of Stamps Cemetery is the comb graves or tent graves. It’s one of several cemeteries in the South that contain this vernacular form of a grave marker that forms this pyramid shape. They are found almost exclusively in the Appalachian Mountains, most of them in Tennessee. The reason why they were built this way is not known, but it is suspected that Scottish-Irish burial traditions influenced them. It is also speculated that they served a more practical purpose of protecting the graves from wandering livestock.
The grave of Sanford Stamps is a collection of folk influences. There is the tent grave covering, the star, and this headstone form called head and shoulders or discoid.
One interesting aspect of this cemetery that differentiates it from other cemeteries with comb graves is that some headstones have a five-pointed star. A star can represent the crucifixion, the star of Bethlehem, or Christianity. Since some of the stars are inverted downwards, some believe it’s a pentagram. Consequently, the cemetery became known as “The Witch’s Graveyard.” I am more apt to believe it was done because there was a limited understanding of how the star should be drawn, or they were embracing the idea that a point facing downward symbolized Jesus descending upon Earth as the North rose.
“The blessed babe of E. N. Henry was born Januar 27, 1871. Died March 7, 1871.”I often find money on headstones, but its almost exclusively on veterans’s headstones. There were coins on almost all of thencimb graves. To the memory of Mary A. Neal, 1846-1884. The headstone contains a star.
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