Southern Graves

Seventeen years ago (holy cow!) I transcribed, chiefly by hand, inscriptions on all the tombstones found at Centerville Cemetery in Houston County, Georgia. This information was then uploaded to my website, where it has sat for all these years. In cleaning up my little corner of the 'net, I've decided to take down that particular page. The burials can be found in the FindAGrave database, so that information is still readily available at this time. I'm creating a post in this space to share some history and highlights from the cemetery, essentially retaining some of the personal work of my choosing... (About 2002 or Prior) Where Centerville Cemetery Fit within the Town Centerville Cemetery is located across from the First Baptist Church on Church Street. According to Georgia Place-Names by Kenneth Krakow , "Mitchell F. Ethridge settled here and opened a store about 1885. The name derived from the fact that it was located halfway between Macon and Perry, as ...

I was surprised at the number of ceramic photos (sometimes known as porcelain pictures ) I found while traipsing through Forsyth Cemetery and its subdivision called Rest Haven in Monroe County, Georgia. Young soldiers and children were prevalent. From the 1940s to the 2000s. Below are the nineteen I photographed. J. Ponder Carson (1868-1943) H. Walter Carson (1873-1943) *brother of J. Ponder Calvin Clifford Hudson (1946-1967) James T. Pritchett (1881-1941) Bessie W. Pritchett (1884-1967) *wife of James T. Joseph D. Pritchett (1917-1940) *son of James & Bessie John W. Martin (1943-1966) Samuel F. Anderson, Jr. (1929-1954) Joyce A. Belknap (1953-1970) James Floyd Mitchell (1901-1962) Ozella McCord Mitchell (1903-1990) *wife of James Floyd William Raymond Maddox, Sr. (1918-1984) Lucille Bates Maddox (1919-1996) *wife of William Raymond Gail Eugenia Maddox (1946-1959) *daughter of William & Lucille Sharron Crutchfield (...

The original acreage of Indian Springs State Park was "acquired" from the Creek Native American tribe in 1825, and has operated as a park ever since. My one and only visit to a cemetery located within the boundaries of Indian Springs State Park at Butts County, Georgia was back in September 2007. More than a decade ago, there was a ton of overgrowth, broken tombstones, stones knocked off their bases, crumbling surrounding structures, and general disrepair. Rumor has it, the condition of the cemetery only worsened. An article in the Jackson Progress-Argus (Georgia) dated 25 March 2014 stated two organizations -- the Friends of Indian Springs State Park and the Butts County Genealogical Society -- were working together to begin restoration of the cemetery. Following are two images captured for Google street view two years later in 2016: These images, as well as another article from another year later (2017), suggest progress is slow. I know it's thankless work to...

[This was originally posted at the Peachy Past blog . I thought it might be of interest to Southern Graves readers.] S carcely a vestige today survives in the way of a memorial to tell of the brief sojourn in this State of the pious Moravians.  But the early annals of Georgia are too fragrant with the memories of this sweet-spirited sect to justify any omission of them in this historical retrospect…The missionary activities of the Moravians among the Georgia Indians were successful in a marked degree; and, with little opposition from the red men of the forest, who learned to trust them with implicit confidence, they penetrated far into the Blue Ridge Mountains and established at Spring Place, in what is now Murray County, a mission which exerted a powerful influence among the native tribes, converting not a few chiefs and warriors, and continuing to flourish down to the final deportation of the Cherokees, in 1838… [Georgia historian, Lucian Lamar Knight, abt 1914] A couple of in...

I didn't believe it at first.  But then I found a newspaper article that confirmed it.  John Walz, well known German born sculptor of Savannah, Georgia, was commissioned to carve a statue of Bertha Wolff – and that statue was delivered to and placed in Rose Hill Cemetery at Macon, Georgia. I am deeply in love with Macon's Rose Hill Cemetery .  It's one of the few things I was sad to leave when we moved to the mountains.  But it doesn't get oohed and ahhed over quite as much as Savannah's Bonaventure Cemetery.  Over 100 pieces of mortuary art found in Bonaventure are attributed to John Walz.  To know a piece of art by a sculptor who helped give Bonaventure some of those oohs and ahhs was located in Rose Hill, tickled me pink. Think you don't know John Walz? Well, maybe you do.  One statue he carved out of marble is pretty well known.  If you visit Bonaventure, you'll find directions pointing to it, and you will likely find a few people already ther...