More old graves in Autauga County............!
Hello,
Today, in my quest to find the graves of William and Lewis Rawlinson, immigrants to Autauga Co from S.C. back in 1820s, I went to a small graveyard marked "Confederate Veteran's Cemetery" on the Autauga Co., Al. map. It is on Co. Rd. 45 more or less across from Shiloh Church.Going north towards Selma about a mile or so past Autaugaville turn right on Co. Rd. 45.In this cemetery were several Halls, Jones, Wittlesworths, Zeiglers, etc.. Some of these graves were very old. One of the Halls for example was dated 1808. I don't know why it is referred to as a Confederate Veteran's cemetery. Because only one of the graves were marked as a C.S. Soldier, I think it was Samual Hall. He was a Pvt. in Co. "G", 6th Alabama Infantry Regt., C.S.A.. His company was the "Autauga Rifles". This was once a pretty little family cemetery, with an ornate wrought iron fence around it, with some nice looking tombstones, etc.. Now it is all over grown with trees, vines, briars, cacti, and there is even a large tree or two that has fallen onto it, knocking over a tombstone or two and the fence in places. For the life of me I don't understand why or how a family, families,or descendents could let their old family gravyards go to crap like that! A couple of the graves were the type that are upraised sort of like what they have in Louisiana. A couple were semi collapsed. There were some bones there too, either some animals or small human bones.A couple of the people in this cemeterywere doctors too. From the looks of the fence, the stones, etc, they must have been an infuential family/families at one time, perhaps "Landed Gentry". I just thought I would post this in case a descendant might be interested in checking it our or even cleaning the place up.
Take care,
David Middleton Edelen II