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PAGE 2A PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS THURSDAY. JULY 20. 2023
Researchers requesting help with ID’ing graves in 1800s
slave and freed men cemetery in Yukon area
Photo/Mark Millican
Jennifer Anderson, left, and Susan Notes kneel by the
distinctive Rose Cemetery entrance at the intersection of
Raven Cliff Road and John Teem Road near the Pickens
County line.
By Mark Millican
Contributing Writer
When Jennifer Anderson
and her husband Danny
moved into the Yukon com
munity of Gilmer County,
just a few miles from the
Pickens County line, some of
the residents told her about a
cemetery where Black slaves
were buried.
A single headstone in the
plot at the intersection of
Raven Cliff Road and John
Teem Road reads, “Mary
Rose, early 1800s.” Other
graves are marked with field-
stones that have no writing.
“Somebody speculated
about a name of Rose and put
a stone here with that name
on it, but I have researched
that and we do not know who
she is,” Anderson said. “We
do know that in 1881 there
was a Black school here.”
She and Susan Noles,
both avid historical re
searchers and members of
the Capt. James Kell Chapter
of the Daughters of the
American Revolution, have
led the charge to get the old
graveyard cleaned up and
recognized.
“Jennifer told me about it
and I drove over here,” Noles
recalled during a tour of what
is now known as the Rose
Cemetery. “We had to push
the fence over to climb in! It
might have slaves, but I think
it’s more freedmen. We have
done research on all the land
lots in the area during that
period of time in the late
1800s. There were around 13
or 15 Black families in this
community. We have had a
man tell us there was a Black
church down here by a little
creek, but we haven’t located
the foundation.”
Anderson said the land
adjoining the cemetery was
once owned by an African-
American freedman and
preacher named Henry
Wright, who probably pas-
tored the church. In March of
last year, the Gilmer County
Genealogy Society and DAR
members pitched in to hire
Omega Mapping to do a
ground-penetrating radar
search.
“There were a few grave
markers, so the man who
used the radar marked the
graves for us and then we put
the stones in to designate a
grave is there,” said Ander
son. “There were a couple
that were sunk in and we
filled those with dirt. There
are 67 graves, and four of
them are in caskets and the
rest of them are in shrouds.
He could tell that by the
radar.”
Amazingly, the mapping
also found five graves held
babies, there are 10 where
children or teenagers are in
terred, and the rest are adults.
“Each grave is marked
with fieldstones for both the
headstones and the foot-
stones,” Noles said. “A 10-
inch metal pin is located in
the middle of each grave to
ensure it is never lost again.
If the pin gets covered with
dirt and debris, a metal detec
tor can be used to find that
grave.”
Just getting the cemetery
visible for passers-by to see
- and interested citizens to
visit and perhaps sit on a
bench to absorb the ambient
natural beauty - was a Her
culean effort because of the
decades of neglect. But when
neighbors learned of the po
tential historic significance
of the site, they joyfully
pitched in to help.
“There’s a group of 25 of
us who have worked on the
cemetery at different times,
clearing brush and trees,”
Anderson said. “Susan and I
pulled out barbed wire and
an old mattress, and I still
pull up bottles every time it
rains. There was a fence
around it, but it was all
grown up so that you could
not even see the fence.”
Others have volunteered
to work as well. One long
time resident stopped by
when Noles and Anderson
were clearing brush in the
cemetery and said he never
knew it was there. When the
pair mentioned some stumps
needed to be cut out, he said
he would do it later and the
next time they arrived the
stumps were gone.
Noles pointed out what
now can be clearly seen.
“This is an original head
stone - it says F.E.B., and
bom in 1836 or 1886, it’s
hard to make out,” she knelt
down to reveal. “And on the
bottom it says H.A.R. It may
be someone’s initials. We’ve
tried to research who lived in
this area, but haven’t found a
match.”
Anderson said Billy Bern
hardt, the former sheriff and
coroner of Gilmer County,
told the researchers he was
familiar with the cemetery.
“He told us that some
where near that gate there
was a headstone that said
Rhoda Jane Roberts, he saw
it a long time ago,” she re
lated. “But we haven’t been
able to find it.”
There’s also a heretofore -
unfounded legend that some
Black members of the mili
tary are buried in the Rose
Cemetery.
“We have had a couple of
people tell us a Black soldier
is buried here - and these two
people don’t know each
other,” added Anderson. “If
we could prove there are
Black soldiers buried here,
we could get it recognized
and historically marked by
the state.”
Noles mentioned that a
big question left hanging is,
“Where did everybody’s
families go?” That’s where
they’re hoping Pickens
County Progress readers can
help out.
“We would like to leam
who the people are who are
buried here,” she said. “We
know some families, like the
Jacksons, are buried at
Talona on the Gilmer County
side. That is what we would
love to do, find and connect
the families. Unless they
have records, we may not
ever be able to prove they
were here, but their families
who remain may still know
something or have some doc
umentation about them.”
Research is ongoing to
identify people and their
families who are buried in
Rose Cemetery. Anyone who
thinks they know of possible
connections is asked to email
Jennifer Anderson and Susan
Noles at
newslettereditor@aahgs.org.
Verified names
of people resting
in Rose
Cemetery:
• Texana Palmer (daughter
of Marion Palmer)
• Rhoda Jane Roberts
• Mary Rose
1870 Census showing
Black heads of house
hold in the Yukon
community:
• Judge Chandler
• Elviry Haren (female)
• Barney Jackson
• Burrell Jackson
• Humphry Jackson
• James Jackson
• Alpha Palmer
• Marion Palmer
• Henry Patrick
• Sidney Richards
• Henry Roberts
• Henry Wright
Bryan Lawrence
Email: Bryan@taithtmf.com
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