This time of year, it’s easy to think of cemeteries as just backdrops for seasonal spookiness. But a closer look at even little graveyards can reveal fascinating local history.
One such place is in north Fayette where Ga. Hwy. 92 meets New Hope Road. Sitting on just over two acres, the Hopeful Primitive Baptist Church is one of the oldest structures in the county.
The congregation was founded in 1825, and is now the focus of a restoration effort to preserve both the small wooden church and its cemetery, where more than 100 souls rest in peace.
Stepping through the dusty soil between rows of carefully cleared headstones, Melvin “Griff” Griffin showed me the grave of his mother, Emily Viola Victoria Hartley Griffin, who passed away in 2012 at the age of 102. Her shiny marble marker stands out amid dozens of much older and often barely legible gray stones. Some graves are identified only with plain rocks; others not at all.
Multiple generations of several families are here. There are Easons, Hartleys, Hills, McClennys and Davenports, including little George William Davenport, who was born in January 1927 and died in June 1928. His headstone, like that of several other children buried here, is adorned with a lamb.
A monument in one corner marks the final resting place of Ezekiel Gardner, who served in the Georgia Infantry Provost Guard during the Civil War and died in 1889.
Confederate flags adorn his and several other graves, including that of Cornelius Andrew “Neely” Thornton, another veteran and a son of Herod Thornton Sr., who helped settle Fayette in the early 1800s, according to Janice Mathis, a church volunteer whose extended family is represented here. Her grandfather, Gus Coleman (1880-1971), founded the little grocery store just up the road.
Also interred here is Mathew Yates, who cultivated a type of apple he found growing along a Fayette creek bank in the mid-1880s. The county once had entire orchards full of Yates apples.
Toward the center of the cemetery, three stacked-stone crypts have no engraving but reportedly contain the remains of Revolutionary War soldiers. Their untold story is part of the rich oral history passed down through the generations.
Griff’s grandmother, Lula Hartley (also buried there), told him about Native Americans and former slaves who supposedly were buried in the churchyard. It wasn’t until last April when the Ground Penetrating Radar Systems company brought equipment to the site that dozens of unmarked graves were found at the far end of the cemetery.
Red survey flags now mark the location of each anonymous coffin. Years ago someone planted daffodils in that area, and each spring they bloom in silent witness to those who lie beneath.
Griff says he used to visit the cemetery by himself for years, cleaning up leaves and brush to help keep the graves tidy. It was there that he met Dean Breest, who had taken photos of the site before joining and ramping up the preservation effort with support from area companies and organizations.
This cemetery may shelter the dead, but it also inspires the living.
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