Davis Family Cemetery

[htmb]

Almost 40 years ago my family purchased some property in a rural part of the county. One side of the land is bordered by this road that has become more picturesque over time.





The purchase of the property also included a small, private cemetery and I must admit it's always bothered me a bit to be an owner of this tiny, family plot. The cemetery borders the road and is located just behind where I was standing when I took the above photo.

I don't care much for cemeteries and don't recall ever entering the fenced enclosure, but yesterday I decided to explore.



There are about seven marked graves inside the fenced area, and I suspect there are more unmarked. What struck me as really interesting were the dates on the grave markers. As it is late December it was very appropriate that the first marker I examined was for a young girl who had died on Christmas Day.

[Deleted]

Have some of those headstones sunk into the ground until the full moon night when everybody in the cemetery rises again?

(I am watching Beautiful Creatures on television as I write this and the vegetation portrayed is identical to that of your photos, even though I think that story takes place in South Carolina.)

[htmb]

I found it curious that Rayford Davis fought in the Civil War for the Confederate States of America. I also found it interesting that his wife, Sarrah, died at the age of 15. I wonder how old she was when they married.

My memory of stories about the cemetery is hazy, but most likely it's because those who have talked about it in the past were prone to fabricate. Perhaps, with a little research, I will be able to find more information about the history of this family.

[bixaorellana]

This is wonderful, Htmb! Thank you for overcoming your own feelings about cemeteries to bring us this fascinating look at the little plot of history. (Guess who loves cemeteries. )

There is no indication of when Rayford died -- whether in the war, or many years later. Why do you find it odd that he fought for the Confederacy? I believe many Floridians did. I wonder what poor little Sarrah succumbed to -- childbirth?

I find the first photo rather moving as it forcefully brought back a memory. The last time my grandmother went out to Fort Adams, Mississippi, the town to which she moved when she married, we visited the tiny graveyard next to the church there. She was distressed because, although she looked and looked, she couldn't find the marker for her stillborn daughter.

[htmb]

Not "odd," just curious, Bixa. I had actually been told the graves went back to the 19th century, but hadn't believed the teller. And, of course, it took me this long to check. I'm slowly working my way up to explore Père Lachaise.

[htmb]

Kerouac, I am not familiar with Beautiful Creatures, but a quick check of the Internet showed four Louisiana locations for filming, including New Orleans and St. Francisville.

[htmb]

Dec 29, 2013 21:36:20 GMT bixaorellana said:

I find the first photo rather moving as it forcefully brought back a memory. The last time my grandmother went out to Fort Adams, Mississippi, the town to which she moved when she married, we visited the tiny graveyard next to the church there. She was distressed because, although she looked and looked, she couldn't find the marker for her stillborn daughter.

Oh, Bixa, how sad on several accounts.

[htmb]

I couldn't sleep last night so started researching the Davis family line. I found that Jesse and Margaret were married and had 7 children when they lived in a town in Effingham, Georgia before moving to north central Florida around 1850. The other graves in the cemetery are of four of the seven children and a daughter in-law. The three surviving children went on to raise families. Future generations fought in several different wars, and one even ran a school my brother attended for a year down in Tampa in the late 1950's. This was the branch of the family that sold us the property in the 1970's.

[Deleted]

As owner of the land, can you put a Checkers there if it is more profitable than the cemetery?

[htmb]

The property is zoned for agriculture, as is everything around it within a 20 mile radius. Hopefully, all the land will be preserved through a conservation effort, but there is definitely a responsibility to protect the cemetery area, if not just for historical reasons. The cemetery is tiny, includes only the seven family members to my knowledge, and has not had a new burial since the late 1800s.

[lola]

Beautiful photo of the road, htmb, and lovely report.

I like a good cemetery. Used to take my girls and some friends in the fall to either big fancy city graveyard or picturesque country one, with a picnic and sketch pads. Math, art, history, fresh air.

Those headstones look more like marble than the crumbly limestone you'd see around these parts.

[htmb]

Thank you, Lola.

I need to return for a better look, but I think some of the head stones are made from limestone, while Rayford's is marble and Sarrah's granite. I also wonder if Rayford is really buried there, or if he was buried at a battlefield instead.

[questa]

"Rayford" and "Sarrah"...aren't they evocative names. They have a sense of history and romance without knowing anything about them.

I think they need their story told.

[Deleted]

Fascinating, htmp. You own a part of history, that is amazing.

[htmb]

My ex reminded me there's another grave about a mile down the road. I don't remember who is buried there, but old rumors detailed him as being a very mean person who made sure he was buried in a boat so he would float when the floods came (the grave is not far from a river I have paddled). There are some even more interesting characters currently living in the area and I suppose someone who's a novelist could turn some of these stories into a historical-type book.

[bixaorellana]

Htmb, your kind response to my grandmother's distress may be a reason you don't care for cemeteries. Possibly your sensitivity makes you feel the sadness of those people, now gone themselves, who came there to bury their loved ones.

This already most interesting thread is now even more fascinating with the facts you've found. When I lived out in the country in North Carolina, every field seemed to have a small graveyard in it. I wonder if any archives from the local paper are online & if they'd have more information on the Davis family.

Coincidentally, at the same time you published this thread, elsewhere on the forum Bjd was discussing her genealogical research.

The boat-as-coffin seems like overkill, you should excuse the expression. Any sealed coffin would surely float.

[htmb]

My response to your grandmother's distress was genuine, Bixa, but not based on the reason I don't like cemeteries. It's just not only what I see above ground, but also what I sense below ground. When I'm in a cemetery I "see" coffins, bones, vaults, stages of deterioration. My imagination takes me beneath the earth and inside the vaults. I have no understanding of why. I've never had a traumatic experience in a cemetery other than the "normal" burial of loved ones.

I suppose this particular cemetery didn't distress me as much this trip because the graves are so old and I suspect all has merged with the earth to some extent. Plus, burial materials were most likely natural wood, with no vaults or embalming. Just simple, natural burial.