Tag Archives: Henry County

-Georgia, Black History, Cemeteries, Churches and Temples, Vernacular Headstones

Documenting O’Neal AME Church Cemetery in Hampton, Georgia

3 Comments

In 2024, I photographed the ruins of the O’Neal AME Church. At the time, I had not realized the cemetery was across the street, hidden in the woods. Recently, the cemetery has been under threat because a massive data center is being built around it. My friend and I decided to visit the cemetery. We were both interested in seeing how close the clearing for the data center was to the property lines and wanting to document any remaining headstones.

We walked the boundary lines of the cemetery. First, the cemetery is completely fenced in, with an approximately 75-foot buffer.

One of the vernacular markers in the cemetery

The cemetery itself was abandoned long ago based on early headstone photos. There is a mixture of professionally engraved headstones, vernacular, Eldren Baileys, and at least two dozen fieldstones. All cemeteries are important, but this cemetery contains the remains of people who were likely enslaved based on birthdate. The last obituary I could locate is from 1967. According to FindAGrave, the last burial appears to be in 1967. From historic aerials, it appears the church’s roof collapsed sometime in the late 1950s.

Reuben (1810-1890) and his wife, Eliza, are documented in the census records for Henry County for 1870 and 1880.
Eliza Keith (1820-1895)
Thomas Thrasher
The metal fence likely marks off a family plot.

Based on tax records, the ruins of the O’Neal AME Church will likely be demolished in the coming year, since the company “Hampton Technology Park,” out of Atlanta, owns the land being developed now and the land where the church is located. The address for Hampton Technology Park is 1776 Peachtree Street, which lists a few real estate companies as tenants, so further research would be needed to determine who owns the land.

The images below are from Qpublic.

The cemetery boundary
Land owned by Hampton Technology Park

The cemetery should be restored. The people buried here help tell the story of Henry County. Hopefully, there will be enough interest to save it.

The penny indicates someone visited this headstone and left it as a memento.
In Black cemetery traditions, a pitcher can represent a connection or passage to the afterlife. Until people started stealing the items, these grave goods could be found frequently in Geechee Gullah cemeteries.
-Georgia, Abandoned, Black History, Churches and Temples

The Ruins of O’Neal AME Church-Henry County, Georgia

6 Comments

Updated: I made it to the cemetery to document. You can find my post here.

I found this church on FindAGrave. I cannot locate any history of the church. The earliest burial is in 1871. That death date means that at least the congregation existed soon after the Civil War, which means it is a freedman church. There are sixteen listed burials with birth dates that indicate they were likely born into slavery. There was no cornerstone to indicate when the church was built. The last listed burial was in 1967. I could not find the cemetery to document the headstones. I will be going back with a friend to see if another pair of eyes will help me locate the cemetery.

The ruins of the church are fascinating. It’s clear that the door and one window were bricked in at some point, but this wasn’t done for all the windows and what I suspect was the entrance to the preacher’s office.

Baptismal pool
Side view
Front door
Front window
Bricked in window
One obituary mentioning the church as O’Neal ME Church
A death certificate stating “Old Oneal”
Cemeteries, Churches and Temples, Symbolism

Baby in Half Shell Monument

Leave a comment
Katie Lou Bell (1905-1905), Cleveland Cemetery

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 Cemetery
Harry (1886-1892) and Nellie (1888-1892) Roberts, Kennesaw City Cemetery
April Lee Porterfield (1975-1988), McDonough City Cemetery
Ruby Colley (1899-1890), Morgan Methodist Church Cemetery

-Georgia, Black History, Rosenwald Schools, Schools

Unity Grove School-Locust Grove, Georgia

Leave a comment

Founded as early as 1891, the Unity Grove school was founded with the assistance of James Weldon Johnson in the Unity Grove community near Locust Grove. In 1931, the school was rebuilt as a two-teacher type school with Rosenwald funds. The total budget for the rebuild was $2537. The school was in use until 1954 when it was consolidated with another school in the county.

They are currently fundraising to save the school. You can donate. There is event being held to fundraise. See the flyer below.