Southern Graves

In March 2010, almost nine years ago, we went camping at Hamburg State Park near Warthen in Washington County, Georgia. It's a beautiful little place on Hamburg Lake, which is fed by the Little Ogeechee River. On our last morning there, I tried to get up with the sun and have my own amateur photo shoot. Here's an image I like from that early rise. After we left the park, we stopped by the Bethlehem Baptist Church Graveyard for a look-see. I have family from the Washington County area, so am always on the lookout for kin in the local cemeteries. I distinctly remember being rushed on that morning since my companion – having just dismantled the campsite and loaded the car – wasn't in the mood for one of my cemetery jaunts. (God bless him, he's been on several.) I was able to hurriedly snap a few photos, though. According to ExploreGeorgia.org, "Bethlehem Baptist Church (circa 1790) is the oldest baptist church, perhaps the oldest existing church of any denomination, ...

A tombstone shared yesterday – the one that stands to honor the memory of Anna Bass Harvey – also memorializes her parents, David P. and Sarah Bass.  An obituary each for David and Sarah follows. North Georgia Citizen (Dalton, GA) 15 August 1895 - pg. 3 [via Georgia Historic Newspapers ] MR. BASS DEAD. One of Dalton's Best Men Gone to his Reward. The sweet influence of no man in Dalton was more felt than that of Rev. D. P. Bass.  His death last Thursday was a sad blow to Dalton in every sense of the word.  It is superfluous to multiply words in commendation of him.  No class in Dalton or Whitfield county but will miss him and [to] know him was to love him.  He was suddenly stricken down and rapidly desolution [sic] took place in the body mortal but the spirit of the man and christian accompanied by the myriods [sic] of angels hastened to his home where the blessed "Peace, Peace, Peace" was found awaiting him that he so long sought and in his last breath cried...

Anna Bass, wife of Henry Harvey, was born 1 April 1865.  Upon her death on 29 March 1895, just a few days before her 30th birthday, Mrs. Harvey was laid to rest at West Hill Cemetery in Dalton, Whitfield County, Georgia.  The following obituary is from a local newspaper. North Georgia Citizen (Dalton, GA) 4 April 1895 - pg. 2 [via Georgia Historic Newspapers ] LAID TO REST. The Death and Burial Of Mrs. Henry Harvey. That Mrs. Henry Harvey of Rome should die so young is a cross her relatives would find hard to bear was it not for the promise of our Savior that those dying in him should have everlasting life and to-day she is numbered among the blest in that home not made with hands.  As Miss Anna Bass, she was one of Dalton's lovely flowers, and one who was loved by all who knew her.  Mr. Henry Harvey wooed and won her for his bride six years ago, and with them went the blessings of a world of friends, but the inscrutible wisdom of God and jealous love of the angels...

Trammell Starr was, by nearly all accounts, a well-respected citizen of North Georgia.  He was a lawyer and held political office, representing Whitfield County beginning in 1894. But there's also this proposed smear that created headlines across the country in the last month of 1894: Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio) 15 December 1894 - pg. 1 [via GenealogyBank ] A LURID TALE. A Witness States, Under Oath, That a Ku Klux Society Flourishes in Georgia at the Present Time. Atlanta, Ga., Dec. 14. – In the trial of the Whitfield county whitecappers in the United States court today, evidence of a highly sensational character was given by one of the witnesses.  The case on trial is that of the United States against C. C. Brown, Berry Turner and W. B. Callahan.  The witness who furnished the sensation was C. F. Ogles, a well known citizen of Tilton. Mr. Ogles…said that in the spring of 1892 he met with a crowd of men in an old barn at Tilton to form an organization for mutual pro...