Southern Graves

R. R. HUFF b. Sept 6, 1855 d. Mar 16, 1890 Blessed are they that die in the Lord. Photo © 2010/1 S. Lincecum DEATH OVER LAWRENCEVILLE La Grippe Claims Three Victims in a Week LAWRENCEVILLE, March 20 -- [Special] -- Moses Hamilton, Frank Knight and Ross Huff, all good men, passed away last week, victims to "la grippe." 1 La Grippe is an archaic French term for influenza. This yellow lichen covered tombstone is located at Fairview Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Lawrenceville, Gwinnett County, Georgia. 1. "Death Over Lawrenceville," Macon Telegraph (Macon, GA), March 26, 1890, GenealogyBank .

G. T. SPARKS Feb 14, 1830 May 7, 1896 Ascend, my son! thy Father's Kingdom share. Fairview Presbyterian Church Cemetery Lawrenceville, Gwinnett County, Georgia Photo © 2010/1 S. Lincecum Aside from the clasped hands , a neat feature of Mr. Sparks' tombstone is the epitaph. The phrase beginning with Ascend, my son! is from an elegy written by William Cowper about 1748. An elegy is a mournful, melancholic or plaintive poem, especially when a funeral song or a lament for the dead. William Cowper penned this "Elegy III on the death of the Bishop of Winchester" when he was seventeen years old. The line following the one inscribed on the tombstone of G. T. Sparks is henceforth be freed from every care .

In memory of ELIZABETH HANEY b. April 17th, 1764 d. Nov 4th, 1853 Our Mother here lies under ground, The dearest friend we ever found. But through the Lord's unbounded love, We'll meet again in realms above. Elizabeth was a former widow of Moses Liddell, a lieutenant and captain for the South Carolina militia during the American Revolution. She received a pension of $424 a year from 1836 until her death in 1853. In her Revolutionary Pension application at Ancestry , Elizabeth declares she knew Moses because their families lived near each other in South Carolina. Elizabeth married Moses Liddell 16 September 1784, and they had several children. Moses died 2 August 1802. Almost twelve years later, Elizabeth married Thomas Haney 15 June 1814. Elizabeth was widowed again in 1821. For the 1850 Gwinnett County, Georgia census, Elizabeth was listed in Goodwin's District at her son Moses Liddell's household. Elizabeth was buried upon her death three years later...

SACRED To the Memory of WILLIAM THOMPSON who departed this life on the 23rd of August 1835 aged 72 years and 5 months A Sons of the American Revolution emblem is affixed to this ledger marker located at Fairview Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Lawrenceville, Gwinnett County, Georgia. Photo © 2010/1 S. Lincecum

CLARISSA LEONARD WIGHT Daughter of Zephaniah Leonard, Esq. of Raynham, Mass. Wife of Rev. Henry Wight, D.D. of Bristol, Rhode Island Born Nov 9th, 1771 Died Sept 15th, 1864 in Lawrenceville, Ga "Asleep in Jesus, far from thee, Thy kindred and their graves may be. But there is still a blessed sleep, From which none ever wake to weep." Clarissa is part of a highly regarded, highly documented New England family. And she married into the same when joining with Rev. Henry Wight, D.D. in 1799. The following is from The Genealogy of the Cleveland and Cleaveland Families by Edmund James Cleveland (1899). [Note: Not a complete transcription; I pared it down a bit.] Wight ancestry : Thomas 1 ; Samuel 2 , b. Dedham, Mass., Feb 5, 1639, suffered great loss in Philip's war, m. Hannah; Jonathan 3 , b. Sept 11, 1662, m. Margaret Fairbanks; Jonathan 4 , b. Oct 11, 1705, m. Sarah Plimpton; Henry 5 , b. May 26, 1752, of Bristol, R.I.; Rev. Henry 6 , of Bristol, Congregat...

Yesterday I shared with you a monument dedicated for a wife and child from the Fairview Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Lawrenceville, Gwinnett County, Georgia. The pedestal tombstone with a vaulted roof was a memorial to Mrs. Mahulda Alexander and her infant son Samuel F. A portion of the epitaph for Mrs. Alexander is this four line verse: "Farewell, conflicting joys and fears, Where light and shade alternate dwell; How bright the unchanging morn appears, Farewell, inconstant world, farewell." A little Google search reveals this verse is from a hymn written by Anna L. Barbauld about 1809 -- "How Blest the Righteous When He Dies!" Here is this beautiful work in it's entirety: How blest the righteous when he dies! When sinks a weary soul to rest, How mildly beam the closing eyes, How gently heaves th' expiring breast! So fades a summer cloud away; So sinks a gale when storms are o’er; So gently shuts the eye of day; So dies a wave along th...

This Monument IS DEDICATED To the purest affection FOR A WIFE AND CHILD, By the Husband and Father. SAMUEL F. ALEXANDER MRS. MAHULDA ALEXANDER Born August 17th, 1813 Died April 23rd, 1853 In every relation of life, as Wife, Mother, Sister, friend, neighbor and humble, devout Christian, she was admired and beloved. Long she endured with Christian fortitude the tortures of a lingering and most painful disease and finally sunk to rest. "Farewell, conflicting joys and fears, Where light and shade alternate dwell; How bright the unchanging morn appears, Farewell, inconstant world, farewell." SAM'L F. ALEXANDER Born Sep 3rd, 1846 Died Sep 10th, 1848 As a wave on the Ocean, as a bubble on the River, is gone, gone forever. Pedestal Tombstone with a vaulted roof Dedicated to Mrs. Mahulda Alexander and her infant son Samuel F. Fairview Presbyterian Church Lawrenceville, Gwinnett County, Georgia All Photos © 2010/1 S. Lincecum

Shady Ann S. Byrd Born Sept 11, 1830 Died Nov 1, 1848 Aged 18 Yrs, 1 Mo, & 20 Dys Shady Ann, upon her untimely death, was laid to rest in Fairview Presbyterian Church Cemetery at Lawrenceville, Gwinnett County, Georgia. Her tombstone is interesting to me. It is somewhat akin to a plaque marker, which from the side looks like a right angle triangle. Shady's stone however has no sharp, purposed edges or corners. Instead, everything about it is curved. It reminds me of a scroll. Shady Ann, daughter of Alfred Williams, was married to Daniel M. Byrd in Gwinnett County on 25 November 1847. They were married a little less than a year when she passed away. Daniel (13 Oct 1826 ~ 10 Mar 1880) is buried beside his young bride in the church cemetery. Photos © 2010/1 S. Lincecum

Fairview Church Cemetery, Lawrenceville, Gwinnett, GA Photo © 2010/1 S. Lincecum Click here for epitaph information. DIED. Suddenly in Decatur, DeKalb county, Georgia, on Friday, the 26th of February, and in the 58th year of his age, Dr. THOMAS W. ALEXANDER, of Gwinnett. The deceased was born in South Carolina, and there lived till 1825, when he removed to this State. He was the son of pious parents, members of the Presbyterian Church, and by them was trained up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. When about twenty years of age he made a public profession of Faith in Christ, and at an early period after his connection with the Church he was chosen, and set apart to the office of ruling elder, and continued to discharge the duties of this office with great efficiency and acceptance until the day of his death. On the morning of that fatal day, he was returning from Atlanta, whither he had been on business, and was driving in a light buggy a strong and spirited you...

SACRED to the memory of D R . THOMAS W. ALEXANDER [who was born] July 2nd, 1790 and died Feby 26th, 1847 "Haste thee on from grace to glory Arm'd by faith and wing'd by prayer Heaven's eternal days before thee God's own hand shall guide thee there" Fairview Presbyterian Church Cemetery Lawrenceville, Gwinnett County, Georgia Photo © 2010/1 S. Lincecum The epitaph on the the good doctor's stone is from a hymn entitled, "Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken," written by Henry F. Lyte in 1824. Those lines are actually the beginning of the final verse. Here is the rest: Soon shall close thy earthly mission, Swift shall pass thy pilgrim days; Hope shall change to glad fruition, Faith to sight, and prayer to praise. Dr. Thomas Alexander was a son of Maj. John Alexander , who was written about in this space a few days ago. As we well know, sometimes an epitaph is just a nice sentiment or catchy phrase, and does not really tie directly ...

Even to those gone before, and of course, those thankfully still among us - Happy Mother's Day! Oakland Cemetery Atlanta, Georgia © 2011 S. Lincecum

Photo by Brian Scott, via Historical Marker Database John Alexander was born about 1755 in Fountain Inn, South Carolina to James Alexander and Mary Peden. John's brother James and uncles John, Samuel, and David Peden founded the oldest Presbyterian Church in Greenville County, South Carolina in 1786, named Fairview . Legend has it the church was named after the old gray stone church in Antrim County, Ireland, from which it's (Peden) founders came to America in 1773. The land on which the South Carolina church was built was given to the founders in lieu of payment for their service during the Revolutionary War. Prior to that, the land was in the hands of the Cherokee Indians. John Alexander, though not considered a founder of the church (but an early member and one of the first elected elders), also served during the American Revolution. He was part of the Tyger Irish Company who participated in the Battle of Kings Mountain . Photo by Robin Dixson, via FindAGrav...

Lusitania Memorial in Cobh, Ireland by Sofia S. on Flickr Saturday, May 7th, 2011 marks the 96th anniversary of the sinking of the Lusitania by a German u-boat off the coast of Ireland in World War I. I don't know a whole lot about the sinking, so was doing a little reading on the subject yesterday. More than one thousand people lost their lives, and about 130 of those lives lost were American (I see different numbers in different articles, ranging from 124 to 128). I also found a list of "notable" men, women, and children who were passengers on the ill-fated vessel. Some survived, but most did not. Entire families were lost at sea. Many, many bodies were never even recovered. On that list as one of the lives drowned with the Lusitania was that of a noted genealogist, Mr. Lothrop Withington. He was memorialized in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register ( Volume 70 , published 1916) in the section entitled "Report of the Historian: Necro...

Arlington National Cemetery by rickcanyon42, on Flickr With every fiber of my being, I thank each and every soldier that has ever fought for my freedom and my safety, as well as that of my ancestors. Hundreds of thousands have paid the ultimate price of death, and words will never adequately express my gratitude. God bless America.