Tag Archives: cemetery

-Georgia, Cemeteries

The Grave of Moses Harshaw-The Story of “The Meanest Man Alive” in Clarkesville, Georgia

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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).

-Georgia, Cemeteries

The Restoration of Olde Clarkesville Cemetery in Habersham County, Georgia

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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 2014
Another view of the cemetery in 2014
This 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.

-Georgia, -North Carolina, Cemeteries

Decoration Day-A Southern Tradition

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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.

If you want to read more about Decoration Day, I highly recommend the book by Karen Singer and Alan Jabbour. Their book Decoration Day in the Mountains: Traditions of Cemetery Decoration in the Southern Appalachians does a detailed job of explaining the history of the Decoration Day practice.

TikTok about Decoration Day

-Tennessee, Black History, Cemeteries, Vernacular Headstones

Mount Ararat Cemetery of Nashville, Tennessee

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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. 1883
Dr. 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 Homan
The Victorian-influenced marker of Cora Haynes (1867-1889)
May 17, 1929 announcement in the Nashville Banner

-Tennessee, Cemeteries, Vernacular Headstones

The Tent Graves of Stamps Cemetery in Putnam County, Tennessee

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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.
-Tennessee

Billy Tripp’s Mindfield-Brownsville, Tennessee

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At first glance, this multi-story art installation looks like an electrical substation, but it’s the creation of Billy Tripp. The work began in 1989 after a local auto parts store burned down, and he had an idea on how to use the leftover beams.

In an article on the Haywood County Tennessee website, Tripp shares, ‘As I got started, I developed different themes; firstly, an outdoor church, I’m not religious, but I like things that are holy or special. And I’m going to be buried there, so [the Mindfield] is like my grave marker.’ He states it also about grief. He lost both of his parents, and there are memorials to them embedded in the structure. Ultimately, the installation, considered the largest piece of artwork in the state of Tennessee, is a conversation with Tripp himself.

Tripp plans to add to the Mindfield until he passes away. He has gotten permission from the city of Brownsville to be buried here. The Kohler Foundation will be taking care of the structure after his death.

If you visit, you can only see the structure from the parking lot.