Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Stanton killed, buried on Crump property, cemetery known as KNOWLES: For answer click below

Guess writer and Monroe County historian Mary Anna Riggan explains how the Stanton, Crump, and Knowles families were involved in the formation of Knowles Cemetery. A killing required that a burial ground be established --- read Mrs. Riggan's account of the tragic death of Abel Stanton (click here).

Saturday, March 27, 2010

MAXEY CEMETERY



Maxey Cemetery is now posted at Itawamba County Mississippi Book of the Dead. Click here for access to the index of names from the grave markers, for links to the grave marker photographs and for maps to the cemetery.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Chastain Cemetery


Chastain Cemetery is now posted at Itawamba County Mississippi Book of the Dead. Click here for access to the index of names from the grave markers, for links to the grave marker photographs and for maps to the cemetery.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Files Cemetery



Itawamba County Mississippi Book of the Dead
is a publication of Hill Country H.O.G.S. WebPress. Today at the Book of the Dead, the small cemetery known locally as Files Cemetery is featured. Click this link to Files Cemetery: http://itcomsbookofthedead.blogspot.com/2010/03/files-cemetery-itawamba-county.html

Sunday, March 21, 2010

An update and correction: Loyd-style marker made in the 1980s by Peppertown Pottery

Photo presented 1980s marker as an 1880s marker. A correction

One of the photographs presented in yesterday's post was initially through to be a circa 1880s pottery grave marker when, in fact, it is a 1980s pottery marker made by the late Peppertown Pottery potters, Titus and Euple Riley of Itawamba County Mississippi. Read the update for a correction as well as additional photographs.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Loyd-style pottery grave markers

A photographic essay on Loyd-style pottery or stoneware grave markers is presented at Hill Country HOGS Blog (click to read).

Asbury Cemetery, Itawama County, Mississippi


by Terry Thornton
email: hillcountrymonroecounty@gmail.com

Asbury Cemetery is the featured cemetery today in Itawamba County Mississippi Book of the Dead. The two articles includes general photographs of the cemetery, map to the cemetery, alphabetized list of names from the grave markers, and links to the photographs of grave markers. The two articles are


Friday, March 19, 2010

The Insect Man --- Francis Flavius Bibby

Entomologist Francis Flavius Bibby, late of Smithville, is the subject of this week's Hill Country column in Monroe Journal. To read The Insect Man, click here.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Little Cemetery, District 4, Itawamba County

Three related posts about Little Cemetery, District 4, Itawamba County, Mississippi, are posted at Itawamba County Book of the Dead. The three posts (click links to read) are

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Morrison Cemetery, Monroe County

A list of the burials at Morrison Cemetery with links to photographs of the grave markers is posted at http://hillcountryhogsblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/morrison-cemetery-monroe-county.html

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Can you spot the cemetery in this video?

by Terry Thornton
email: hillcountrymonroecounty@gmail.com


Click on the start button to watch this video made March 15, 2010. Knowles Cemetery is shown in the video. Watch and see if you can determine where the cemetery is in the woods. After watching the video, scroll down for a still photograph of the cemetery.

I've driven past this area many times and had no clue there was a well-established but abandoned cemetery on a slight rise overlooking Halfway Creek within view of the road. Thanks to Ray Blaylock of Sipsey Fork and Sherman Thornton of Amory for directing me to Knowles Cemetery.


Click image for a larger view

For an inventory of the burials at Knowles Cemetery and links to the photograph of individual grave markers, click here.

Knowles Cemetery, Monroe County, Mississippi

A circa 1860s cemetery was photographed and inventoried yesterday in Monroe County, Mississippi. Knowles Cemetery (south of Becker) consists of a small fenced area containing twenty-one marked burials of the Knowles Family (many formerly of South Kingston, Rhode Island) and allied family members (Watkins, Williamson, Stanton) and a small unfenced area containing evidence of several other graves but only two readable markers. This outside-the-fence area may contain burials of slaves or recently freed slaves of the family; more research is needed.

The last inventory found of Knowles Cemetery is the one by Evans et al completed in May 1938.

Click here to read the current inventory of Knowles Cemetery and to access the links to photographs of each grave marker found in the cemetery.

Monday, March 15, 2010

A Book Review

Martha Reece Bone Lakes' recent book, Itawamba County WWI Draft Registration Records, is reviewed at this link: http://hillcountryhogsblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/book-review-itawamba-county-ms-world.html

Copies are available at the Itawamba Historical Society in Mantachie, Mississippi, or from the author direct.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Another Through the Windshield Video

Marching Across the Tennessee River is the subject of another in the series, Through the Windshield Video. Click here to join the march and to see the view.

For earlier Through the Windshield Videos, follow the links in the left side-bar under the heading "video."

A new blog: Itawamba County Mississippi BOOK OF THE DEAD

by Terry Thornton
email: hillcountrymonroecounty@gmail.com


An on-going project is underway to photograph and to transcribe all of the grave markers in Itawamba County, Mississippi. The transcriptions and photographs of the grave markers will be posted at the Book of the Dead as the various cemeteries are completed.

The first cemetery to be posted online at Book of the Dead is Walton Cemetery, a medium-sized rural cemetery which dates to approximately 1860. Walton Cemetery continues to receive burials; the last published index of the burials there was by Betty Burton-Cruber completed in the early 1970s.

Because of the length of the new index to all 900 burials now at Walton Cemetery, the index was broken into twenty alphabetized sections arranged by surnames. At the Book of the Dead, each of those subsections are listed in the right side-bar and are easily accessed.

Within the next few days, the transcriptions of and the links to the photographs of Maxey Cemetery and Chastain Cemetery (both completed in late 2009) will be posted at the Book of the Dead. Files Cemetery which was photographed last week will be posted soon --- and plans are to photograph Little Cemetery this week.

All of the transcriptions from the grave markers of Itawamba County cemeteries will be indexed in a master list at the Book of the Dead.


Itawamba Historical Society Meeting, Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Patricia Neely-Dorsey is the scheduled speaker for the March regular meeting of the Itawamba Historical Society, Tuesday, March 16, 2010. Patricia, author of the popular book of folk-poems, REFLECTIONS OF A MISSISSIPPI MAGNOLIA, will be reading from her book at the IHS auditorium, Mantachie, MS (corner of Church St and Museum Drive) at 6 PM. All are invited.

A poem and a photograph for Hill County: A broken chain

The Sunday feature, a poem for Hill County, is A Poem and a Photograph: A Broken Chain. Here is the link: http://hillcountryhogsblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/poem-and-photograph-for-hill-country.html

Note: Blogger does not seem to allow me to post workable links --- so cut and paste.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

A Hill Country Hootie Hoo


An Epitaph
is the Hill Country Hootie Hoo today (in honor of or in spite of National Grammar Day, March 4). Click here to read.

Friday, March 5, 2010

A Hill Country Family: Update # 3, The GILLILAND FAMILY

The series, A Hill Country Family, continues with additional information about the family of Gurley Webster Gilliland and Reba Faulkner Gilliland of Splunge, Monroe County, Mississippi. Reader, friend, and cousin Jim Middleton knew the Gilliland family well --- he was a classmate of some of the children of that family at Splunge School --- and Jim sent me the list of the names of the Gilliland children. That updated information can be read by clicking here.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

From the MONROE JOURNAL . . .


Hill Country
column for March 3, 2010, was Area Once Had Plenty of Pig Yokes. About a pig-yoke maker from Richmond, Mississippi, in 1860, the article examines briefly the life and times of George Spikes, pig-yoke maker. Click here to read.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

My Hill Country Assurances: De-ja vu

A new post in the series My Hill Country Assurances is De-ja vu all over again --- on a trip to Decatur, Alabama. Today on a drive to Decatur, a new historical road-side marker got in the way of my journey. I took a side-trip, and, in doing so, I learned much more about my Hill Country Heritage, my Thornton family, and the relationship of Russell Valley to the early settlers of Monroe County. Click here to read De-ja vu all over again.

Hill Country Places

The series, Hill Country Places, continues with a look at the Mt. Zion Community of eastern Monroe County. Click here to see a photograph and a map of the area and to read about Mt. Zion.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Hill Country Story Told in Stone

The series, Hill Country Story Told in Stone, today looks at the grave marker of Archie Bibby and Luella Bibby, late of Monroe County, Mississippi. They share a marker and this report is an attempt to determine the relationship between the two. Click here to read THE BIBBY GRAVE MARKER AT NEW HOPE CEMETERY.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Hill Country Whiskey Still circa 1940s: A Photograph

Hill Country Assurances resumes today with a circa 1940s photograph of a working whiskey still. The still was located in north Monroe County and is a typical example of the many stills that once operated in the Whiskey and Pottery Hills of Hill Country. Click to read the article and to examine the photograph.