Where did the Chattahoochee Valley Cemeteries Society come from?
by John Mallory Land
Although I grew up 800 miles away from Georgia in Dallas, Texas, my parents were from Columbus, where their families had lived for several generations. I became interested in researching my family history about twenty years ago, so Muscogee County became ground zero for these purposes. Because cemeteries make up a vital component of genealogical investigation, I naturally became interested in these fascinating repositories of history and culture. However, I was dismayed to find the destitute state of some of these sites, such as the Land Cemetery near the Harris County line, where my third great-grandparents Land and a number of other kinfolk are buried. This cemetery is grown up in woods, with many of the monuments shattered by vandals or the ravages of nature. Although members of the family knew of the burying ground, it did not appear to have been tended in years, perhaps decades.
But the straw that broke the camel’s back for me was the Clapp’s Factory Cemetery, just below Oliver Dam, where some of my mother’s people are buried. This cemetery was active from the 1830s until at least 1904 and includes an estimated 300 to 500 graves, only one of which is still clearly marked. One! For families who had moved elsewhere to find work after the mill closed, tending the graves and lots of their loved ones became increasingly burdensome. The property owners failed to protect the site from vandalism and deterioration. When concerns were raised after the local newspaper received complaints, Georgia Power’s staff archaeologist asserted in 1991 that there probably wasn’t even a cemetery there, but that if there was, they were doing all that was required by law to protect it because they had put up a gate across the dirt road leading to it (which subsequently became part of the River Walk).
In 2002, when a lady in Griffin, Georgia, posted an inquiry on a Muscogee County genealogy message board to ask about the cemetery where she had learned her ancestor is buried, it caught the attention of a number of individuals, all of whom knew they had a connection to the Clapp’s Factory community but were not yet aware of each other. This group began to communicate and share information, and the new nexus coalesced into the Clapp’s Factory Cemetery Preservation League, a non-profit incorporated in 2003 to advocate on behalf of the site. This organization made a lot of progress toward cleaning up the cemetery, discovering its history and who is buried there, and publicizing its abject fate. But the group remained small and its progress slow.
As part of an unrelated project to reconstruct an 1890 census for Muscogee County, I began to look at all of the available cemetery data, in order to determine what became of some of the folks who appear on the 1880 census of Muscogee but not the 1900. In the course of this research, I became more curious about old cemeteries generally and began to seek them out all over. My experience visiting a wide range of cemeteries in Texas and in Georgia over several years led me to a steadfast conclusion: every cemetery needs an organized group that is dedicated to the specific purpose of tending and preserving that cemetery, for the present and into perpetuity. The responsibility does not fall on any level of government, on any civic organization, on the property owner, the neighbors or anyone else - aside from the relatives and descendants, who are often difficult to track down and frequently do not have the resources or expertise to manage a historic cemetery. In case after case I witnessed, none of these parties was taking action - and as a result, many historical and sacred sites were being needlessly lost to vandalism, abandonment, and neglect.
As I sought out information about the various cemeteries in the Muscogee area, I discovered that a wide number of folks had researched cemeteries in this and surrounding counties over the years, chiefly beginning in the 1960s and moving forward. I also observed that quite a few folks were still actively pursuing this goal but often ignorant of others working on the same problem and of what data had already been gathered in the past. This led to a duplication of effort and an unnecessary proliferation of inaccurate data via the internet while, ironically, some sites were still largely overlooked. I decided that the solution to all of these problems and the best way to pursue the preservation of an overwhelming number of sites was to try to band all of these disparate forces together in a unified effort. I began contacting everyone I could track down who had demonstrated an interest in this matter or who might have some connection to any aspect of it. I made the rounds to the funeral homes, the perpetual care cemeteries, the various foundations related to historic preservation. I notified leaders and staff in the Consolidated Government and sought out relatives and descendants through the genealogical message boards. I canvassed neighbors on residential blocks where small cemeteries were nestled.
The resulting meeting appears to have been a successful first step. A concerned group of individuals met and agreed that the need is great and that the solution is to form an organization with a bold vision: to locate, document, and protect cemeteries throughout the Chattahoochee Valley and to advocate more broadly throughout this region for superior cemetery care and preservation. We are currently seeking to document every burial place in Muscogee County, so that an assessment and care plan can be carried out for all the sites that need them. We have formed a committee for each of five cemeteries known to be in need and anticipate forming more as we grow.
We hope to work with our local sister cemetery organizations, such as the Clapp’s Factory Cemetery Preservation League, the Riverdale-Porterdale Cemetery Foundation, the Historic Linwood Foundation, and the newly formed Patrick Memorial Cemetery Association, as well as such groups as the Muscogee Genealogical Society, the Historic Columbus Foundation, the Historic Chattahoochee Commission, the Georgia Municipal Cemeteries Association, the Alabama Cemetery Preservation Alliance, and so on, to promote and educate civic leaders and the general public throughout the Chattahoochee Valley about the historic and sacred nature of these valuable sites and the importance of protecting them. As we grow, we will be researching, documenting, and advocating for cemeteries in neighboring counties and beyond, hoping to unite even more history buffs, genealogists, cemetery enthusiasts, and concerned citizens in a concerted effort to preserve these gems of our heritage.
Please consider supporting our endeavor by joining our organization, making a donation, and/or volunteering to help with some aspect of our activities. We are making this ambitious effort on behalf of everyone in the community, and we need the backing of the community if we are to succeed. Thank you for your interest in the Chattahoochee Valley Cemeteries Society!
