Gadsden Postcard: Forrest Cemetery Chapel

This postcard brings back some memories. My paternal grandparents, Amos J. and Rosa Mae Wright are buried in Forrest Cemetery, as well as Beulah Vee Wright, my dad's older sister I never met. In the late 1950s and early 1960s during the summers I would get to visit my grandparents in Gadsden for a couple of weeks. Amos was still working as yard foreman for L&N Railroad, so Rosa Mae would often take me to do things during the day before we picked him up at the railyard after work. One of those trips would be a visit to Forrest Cemetery to see Beulah Vee's grave. Since those days my grandparents have died and been buried beside their daughter. You can see gravestone photos below.

The first burial in Forrest Cemetery was Sallie Law Woodliff, a 1.5 year old child. She was the daughter of A.L. Woodliff who had selected the site and began clearing it with the help of his three sons. She died 13 Jul 1872. The chapel was built 1935-36 by the Works Progress Administration from sandstone quarried on Lookout Mountain. That chapel was named the Ruth R. Cross Memorial Chapel in 1960 after a woman who had devoted much time to the cemetery's care. Forrest Cemetery includes 40 acres and is located on South 15th Street in Gadsden.

The card with its "Tichnor Quality View" was published by the Franklin News Agency. Between July 1, 1919 and January 1, 1952, the postage rate for a U.S. postcard was a penny. Tichnor Brothers, Inc., of Boston operated from 1908 until 1987 and was a major publisher of postcards. I was unable to find anything on Franklin and am unsure what their role was. 

A brief history of the modern postcard at the Library of Congress site can be found here.

The rear of the chapel is visible in the distance in this photo.

We have other relatives buried in this cemetery. For instance, two of Rosa Mae's sisters, Stella Vinyard and Maude Wright, are interred there. 

Amos J. and Rosa Mae Wright, probably around the time of their wedding on 31 October 1915. 

Beulah V. Wright

Alfred Spielberg operated a photography studio in Gadsden. According to records at Ancestry.com, he died in 1967. 

Source: Find-A-Grave 

Alabama Cemeteries: A List

Posts have become so numerous on this blog over the years that I've created some items that are lists of related articles. These include "Medical History In Birmingham", "Film Actresses from Alabama Before 1960", "Alabama Library History" and "Holidays Past in Alabama." Here's a list that pulls together my posts about Alabama cemeteries or posts that have significant cemetery content.  

A Walk Among the Pelham Stones

Harmony Cemetery in Helena 

Lacey's Spring Cemetery

Peter Petroff: From Bulgaria to Alabama

Allan Cemetery in Northern Shelby County

A Visit to Brundidge, Alabama

A Visit to Hobbs Historic Cemetery in Huntsville

A Story in Stone: John Payne, MD [1860-1901]

An Alabama Author Buried in Marianna, Florida

 

Walker Evans Photographs an Alabama Cemetery in 1936

Visit to Confederate Memorial Park & Horseshoe Bend

Lacey's Spring Cemetery

On a recent trip to see mom in Huntsville my brother Richard pointed out this small cemetery to me; it's located on Bartee Road, a very short street that connects US 231 and Alabama 36 where those two intersect. See the maps below to understand what I mean.

I've written before about the Wavaho Company and its gas station at that intersection. I've also written a couple of posts about other landmarks in Lacey's Spring here and here. An extensive history of the town and it's historical marker is available here.

That history involves the three Lacy brothers, John, Hopkins and Theophilus, who were born in Virginia and ended up in north Alabama in the early 1820s after periods in North Carolina and Tennessee. The town was named after them; an "e" was added to its name later through a postal department error. All three and other family members are buried in this location. John Lacy is supposed to have served in the North Carolina militia during the Revolutionary War. 

The cemetery is very close to the town's United Methodist Church which faces Alabama 36. As seen in one of the photos below, the location is named Lacey's Springs Cemetery, but it's also known as Bartee Cemetery. William T. Bartee was Postmaster at Lacey's Spring from 1887 until 1904; he was also a representative to the state legislature 1892-93. He is buried here, along with his second wife and daughter. They are not included in this inventory, but the Lacy brothers and many others appear. 

On another recent trip I quickly took the photographs below. Perhaps soon I can stop again and get out of the car to wander. Google Maps also reveals locations for several other cemeteries in the area. 

Even this small cemetery has its Woodman of the World monument.

John Lacy has both an old and new monument. 

The cemetery is still in active use, so there are very old and very new monuments.

Source for both maps: Google Maps

Walker Evans Photographs an Alabama Cemetery in 1936

Walker Evans [1903-1975] is one of the best known American documentary photographers of the 20th century. He made three brief trips to Alabama in his career, in March and the summer of 1936 and in 1973. I have written about him in several blogs posts, including this one which links to the others. 

Evans made that summer 1936 trip with writer James Agee; they spent a couple of months living with a sharecropper family in Hale County. That experience resulted in the 1941 book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, perhaps the most famous non-fiction book ever written about Alabama. 

Most of Evans' photographs on that trip were taken in Hale and Greene counties. The ones below are taken from a roll of 36 exposures in a cemetery probably in one of those places. My source for these is the Walker Evans Archive at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The Met's web site gives no location information except they were taken in Alabama in 1936. 

Divorced from specifics, these photos have a haunting, timeless quality, floating out there somewhere in the past. What does this cemetery look like today, I wonder? Based on the number of marble headstones, many of them large, and the location in a poor, rural state, this cemetery probably contained the graves of at least modestly well-to-do whites. 

Research into Evans' archives at the Met might reveal the location of these graves. If you recognize the place, please leave a comment on this post.

Other comments are below a few of the photos.

This grave appears to be that of "Laura Abbie, wife of J.N. Erwin". I've tried searching Find-A-Grave & Ancestry but no luck so far. Two photos below also have names visible, but I've been unable to figure them out yet. 

The Association of Gravestone Studies has a section of its web site devoted to the symbolism of images found in cemeteries. Here's what it says about hands:

"Hands are found on many gravestones.  It may be the hand of God pointing downward signifying mortality or sudden death.  The hand of God pointing upward signifies the reward of the righteous, confirmation of life after death.  Praying hands signify devotion.  Handshakes may be farewells to earthly existence or may be clasped hands of a couple to be reunited in death as they were in life, their devotion to each other not destroyed by death."

The gravestone below appears to have a hand pointing upward. 

This grave is topped by what appear to be salt and pepper shakers and a basket, perhaps of food. 

Harmony Graveyard in Helena

Dianne and I recently drove through Helena and stopped at the Harmony Graveyard. We seem to do that in our family--stop at old cemeteries and take a look around, even if we have no ancestors there. We're interested in history--all sorts of history. Next to the Graveyard is Harmony Cemetery for African-Americans, which we did not visit. 

As noted in the historic marker's text, the cemetery is on the site of the first church built in what is now Helena. The cemetery dates to 1836 and contains the graves of many notables, including physicians, ministers, and public officials such as the town's first mayor. 

Four victims of at least 20 killed in a train wreck on December 27 1897, are buried in the cemetery--including a mother and two daughters. A rail had apparently been removed by robbers from the track on the Cahaba River bridge, and the train plunged 110 feet into the river. 

The graves of some casualties from the 1926 Mossboro mine explosion that killed 27 and the May 5, 1933 tornado can also be found here. That storm killed 20 people in Bibb and Shelby counties and pretty much destroyed Helena. You can read more about it here.   

Additional comments are below some of the photographs. 

On November 4, 2020, the Helena Reporter published an article about clean-up efforts at the graveyard. 

In the background here you can see the lake in Joe Tucker Park, which also includes a walking trail. 

In the photo above and the one below Woodmen of the World grave markers can be seen. WoodmenLife is a fraternal non-profit that offers insurance to its members. An early benefit to members was a gravestone in the shape of a tree stump. The company had to abandon the program by the late 1920's because it became too expensive. However, these markers can be found in cemeteries across the U.S. They will also have the Woodmen logo. 

The one above is unusual, at least in my experience, in that it is more of a log section than a stump. I've most often seen the type on the left and right below, a tall or taller standing stump.

Helena Cumberland Presbyterian Church is next to the cemetery and has had that name since 1978. Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist churches were all destroyed in the 1933 tornado.