Down a sandy road, there is the Sheffield UMC Cemetery which has several vernacular headstones made with tile. Outside of marbles, this is one of the most used materials I see in homemade headstones and ledgers. There was a church next to the cemetery, but it burned many years ago.
This vernacular headstone can be found in Greenwood Cemetery in Tifton, Georgia. The KOFP represents the Knights of the Pythias. The interlocking links are a symbol of the Independent Order of the Odd Fellows, and the links stand for friendship, love, and truth.
I can’t find anything on this cemetery. It’s still active despite being in a very remote area of Ben Hill County.
When I visit cemeteries, it’s rare that I will see a mixture of vernacular and stately headstones. Groveland Cemetery is one of those rare combinations.
While not a fully handmade marker, I classify this as a vernacular marker for Eddie Parker (1976-2002) because whoever made this was using readily available materials to create it. This is located in the Douglas City Cemetery, Coffee County, Georgia.
I visited the cemetery in Savannah for the first time in 2014. It’s a historic African American cemetery that has faced hardship due to poor management. While the lack of care for the cemetery is problematic, the vernacular headstones remind us how much these people were loved.
As of 2021, the owner of the cemetery has passed away, and families are still struggling to get the cemetery cleaned.