Everyone has a story to tell……

I have received a few requests for additional photo’s and information on the Old Barnett Shoals Cemetery that  I wrote about yesterday in my blog about the Star Thread Mill.

The cemetery itself is in very poor condition. Headstones are falling over, graves are sinking and mother nature is reclaiming the land. I have made a few visits to the cemetery. It is a very haunting place (excuse the pun!) Here are a few more pics of the cemetery.

       

I have been able to identify a little over 20 people buried in the cemetery. Some will never be found as many graves are marked just with rocks or outlined with rocks and no headstones.  The earliest grave I have found is 1903 however most of the graves are from the 1920’s when the mill and village was in it’s heyday. I used census records, historical newspapers and death certificates from Ga’s virtual vault. There are few death certificates that say the person is buried there but I haven’t found a headstone.

It’s sad to me that down this hardly used back road , there are those lying there mostly forgotten in what was once the center of the mill town in which they or their parents worked, lived and built through their labor. What is a now a quiet, rural area was one the scene of busy activity. People living, working and playing. I was inspired to see what I could find out about each person buried there and tell their story. We all have one. Everyone has a story to tell.

For the next few days, I will highlight a few of them here. For those that have seen them before on my Facebook group, forgive the repetition. Each time I share these stories, I myself learn a bit more about them and built a stronger connection. I hope you will feel the same.

George Baughman was grew up in the mill village (his father J.W. and mother Josephine worked in the mill 1900-1920 and are buried here too) and was a nightwatchman and then overseer in the mill. In 1928 Poor George was run over by a car in Athens, GA. His car stalled and as he got out of the car to investigate he was run over by another car. He was 36 years old. It was all front page headlines in the Athens paper (Ga Digital Library-Historic Newspapers-Athens)

Lester Brooks-son of Mr. and Mrs. J.F Brooks who had just moved here from Walton Co. to work in the mill In 1920 . Lester died shortly after the family moved here at 10 years of age. His obit does not list a cause of death. His family moved on to Jefferson, Ga to work in the mills there.

Liza  Bellew-Mrs. Bellew’s son John worked in the mill in the 1920’s. He died in 1923 and was buried in Jackson , Co Ga. His wife Nora, stayed at Barnett Shoals and Eliza continued living with her  daughter-in-law up until her death in 1926 at age 78. Nora then moved to work in mills in Crawford and then to the GA Factory at Whitehall (Clarke Co)