Set aside by early residents as places to honor their dead, over the years and decades that followed, some area cemeteries remain in use, more were established as populations grew, and others fell into disuse. For the latter, the cycle of life is well on its way to reclaiming old burial grounds.The well-known epitaph “gone but not forgotten” can be reversed to accurately describe the state of some area cemeteries, since they are largely unknown, neglected or seldom visited compared to their heydays but still hang on for the few willing to seek them out.
Rehoboth Cemetery
Located just south of Sylacauga in Coosa County, what was once Rehoboth Church is now the home of F.W. Jennings. The old church cemetery is located atop a hill adjacent to his property, and with permission is accessible via his driveway.
Jennings said that it has been years — circa late 1980s or early 1990s — since the cemetery was cleared of vegetation, which was also about the same time of the last burial there. But visitors with kin buried there still turn up regularly.
That could be due to Rehoboth's size.
"There are a whole bunch of graves up there, but you'll have a hard time seeing most of them, it's so grown up," Jennings said.
He said that some of the graves are those of Indians, which he believes to be kin of the same Indians who founded Sylacauga.
Dating back to around the time of the Civil War, scores of graves there have stone markers of various types. Some are commercially produced and display names of the deceased, others appear to be handmade and lack names, and still other markers consist only of rocks piled atop grave mounds.
Possibly an equal number of graves lack markers, or may have once had wooden markers that have long since rotted away. Such graves are visible only as sunken spots with treacherous footing, and several show fresh evidence of burrowing animals.
But even today, it is hard for a visitor to Rehoboth to miss one especially striking white stone marker, which apparently was intended to serve as both a memorial and as a warning of what awaited those who murdered one of the area's early settlers. Standing approximately 5 feet high, the marker has an inscription that reads:
"Here lies the remains of John M. Wood, who was murdered near Sylacauga in Talladega County Alabama by a band of midnight assassins on the night of 24 October 1863 aged 52 years 2 months.
“Rest, father, rest in thy narrow home
For over thy head thy foes may tread/But mark this dreadful end
Rest peaceful in thy mound of clay/Thy blood shall be avenged
“Retributive conscience will harass the perpetrators with the memories of their crimes and haunt them with the phantom of gilt-born fear."
Other markers are those of kin buried next to one another, and display surnames such as Liveoak Porter, Stewart, Green, Arnold, Culberson, Blackmon, Mize, and others.
Like all cemeteries of a century or more ago, many, if not a majority, of the graves at Rehoboth are those of infants, children and young adults.
Pell Cemetery
The passage of time and generations have kept an old cemetery in Pell City out of public view despite its location just off one of the city's main thoroughfares.
But such was not the case at the beginning of the 20th century, as Avondale Mills and its workers brought Pell City to life. According to longtime residents, the early burial needs of the young city were served by the new cemetery, which shared the city's name.
Sumter Cogswell and Lydia Degaris Cogswell, who bought Pell City in 1901, allowed some of their land to be used as for what came to be called Pell Cemetery.
Still owned by the Cogswells' descendants, the cemetery is off 19th Street South near the intersection of Bruce Etheredge Parkway. It was used at no cost to families through the 1930s.
Today it takes a sharp eye and willingness to brave thick undergrowth to find any sign of Pell Cemetery. In addition to homemade markers and stone cairns, toppled headstones also can be found, along with rows of long-collapsed graves and half-buried commercially-made markers.
Pell City resident Donna Baker discovered such conditions when she went looking for the graves of her great-grandmother, Rachel Carr Causey, and her great-grandfather, James Israel Causey.
Following her visit there, Baker reported her findings at Saving Graves, a non-profit Web site:
"There is one tombstone that is a Woodsman of the World stone that is shaped like a tree with branches coming out. Also, one family plot that is about 15 ft. by 20 ft. bricked around with a wrought iron fence. I was scared to walk around because of not knowing where all the graves were, I thought I might fall into one. Also, one of the neighbors said they have had dogs drag up veils to their porch."
Although Pell Cemetery is on private property, visitors are allowed under certain conditions. Ashley Degaris, daughter-in-law and representative of longtime Pell City resident and landowner Kate Degaris, said the family asks only that people who wish to visit Pell Cemetery first obtain permission and sign a release absolving the landowners from liability in the event of a mishap or injury at the site.
"It's extra dangerous out there," Ashley Degaris said. "You could be walking on graves and not know it."
For specifics on visiting Pell Cemetery, contact Ashley Degaris at 205-298-0022.
Coosa Industrial Park
A former farming community all but erased by the demands of the U.S. military during World War II is the place to find perhaps the largest concentration of long-unused and infrequently visited burial grounds in the Coosa Valley.
Laniers yielded more than 13,000 acres to the U.S. Army in 1941 to build the Alabama Ordnance Works. The huge land purchase north of Childersburg meant its people had to go so the world's largest explosives plant could be built. The bomb plant buildings have been gone since 1973, but some Laniers residents remain; in fact, they never left.
The six family cemeteries were about the only things left on plant land, although they were made all but inaccessible by the plant's considerable level of security.
Present-day topographic maps of Laniers show Reynolds Cemetery, now surrounded by the Coosa Pines golf course; Swain Cemetery, located behind the former Beaunit Rayon Mill; Nicholls Cemetery, located atop a rolling hill and now maintained by the city of Childersburg; and Rhoden Cemetery, which is on land now owned by paper manufacturer Bowater Newsprint.
Two other unnamed burial places could not be located as of this past spring due to dense undergrowth and the thick stands of timber that now dominate the plant land.
The cemeteries that can be readily found are filled with mostly unmarked graves and have deteriorated with little or no maintenance after 60 years of government ownership. But just like the last time the land changed hands, the graveyards aren't going anywhere.
Childersburg City Councilman David Dunlap said earlier this summer that the city will protect the cemeteries from development, and allow access for the kin of those interred at what is now the Coosa Industrial Park.
To arrange a visit to cemeteries there, contact Childersburg City Hall at 256-378-5521.
On the Net:
Saving Graves
http://www.savinggraves.org
