The Meriwether Family of MS and KY

Today, while searching for additional information on the Wilds and Meriwether families of Mississippi and Kentucky, I stumbled upon a cemetery listing for the Meriwether Cemetery in Kentucky. Most of the Meriwether family members who died in Kentucky and are buried in this cemetery in Todd County, once lived in Mississippi.

My great-grandmother was Margaret Susanna ("Maggie") Meriwether, and I have been searching for over ten years for information about "Wilds" Meriwether, her father. Although I have not yet solved the mystery, I am certain now of a connection between the Wilds and the Meriwether families. According to the U. S. Census recorded in Mississippi in 1850 and in 1860, the families lived near each other. And as the cemetery transcription found at the link in this post shows, members of each family are buried near each other in the Meriwether Cemetery in Kentucky.

Maybe one day I can be certain that Wilds Meriwether was my paternal great-great-grandfather.

Coxburg Cemetery - Ralph Ernest Netherland and Rosa Mae Pettus

Ralph Ernest Netherland was one of the nine children born to William Bailey Neatherland and Martha Elizabeth Garrard Neatherland. Their grave stone was pictured in my post yesterday. Ralph was born on February 1, 1886 in Holmes County, Mississippi. He married my grandmother, Rosa Mae Pettus, whose grave stone is pictured below, when he was 39 years old and she was barely 17. My mother was born a year later, and four and one half years after she was born, Rosa Mae and Ralph Netherland and a son. I know very little about my grandparents' life together, except that their marriage was not an enduring one, and they were divorced when my mother was about 14 years old. Several years later, my grandmother married again, this time to Frank B. Parsons, Sr., a widower, whom I knew as a child as "Pa Frank." Mr. Parsons died a few years later, and was buried in the cemetery near Coxburg Baptist Church, next to his first wife.

Born on August 28, 1908 in Holmes County, Mississippi, Rosa Mae Pettus was the daughter of William Elza Pettus and Lucy Lula Trigleth. As a young woman, "Grandma," as she was later called by her grandchildren, worked as a visiting nurse in the Lexington, Mississippi area, near Coxburg and Ebenezer, where she had grown up. Grandma moved from Ebenezer to Jackson after Mr. Parsons died, and worked at St. Dominic's Hospital until she retired in the early 1970's. After retirement, Grandma sold her house in Jackson and moved back to Holmes County, where she lived until she died unexpectedly on January 4, 1986. As far as our family could determine, Grandma had driven home from church on Sunday, and apparently went inside, sat down in her easy chair and removed her shoes to rest for a few minutes, possibly to take a short nap. And it was in that chair that she died, just a little over seven months before her 78th birthday.



Rosa Mae Pettus Netherland Parsons was buried in Coxburg Cemetery, next to her first husband, Ralph Ernest Netherland. Buried nearby are many deceased members of the Pettus and Neatherland/Netherland families. I know that her children made the final decision about Grandma's burial location, but I have often wondered if this was her choice, as well.

Tombstone Tuesday - William Bailey Neatherland and Martha Elizabeth Garrard

William Bailey Neatherland and Martha Elizabeth Garrard, my maternal great-grandparents, are buried in Coxburg Cemetery, in the old community of Coxburg, Mississippi, near Lexington, the county seat of Holmes County. William Bailey Neatherland and Martha Elizabeth Garrard Neatherland were parents of nine children, including my maternal grandfather, Ralph Ernest Netherland. William was born on May 22, 1845 in Scotland and died in Holmes County, Mississippi on May 24, 1937. Martha Elizabeth Garrard was born on September 8, 1853 in Kentucky, and she died on January 17 1939, just a few months after her 85th birthday. Coxburg Cemetery is the burial place of many other Neatherland/Netherland family members as well as members of several allied families, including the Bass, Harthcock, Killebrew, Pettus, Thomas, Trigleth, and Ziegler families.

Source: Digital Photograph Collection, Privately held by Janice Tracy

Holmes County Cemeteries - Netherland, Pettus, and Trigleth Families

My mother has always told me that everyone I am related to on her side of the family is buried in the cemetery at the Coxburg Methodist Church. Recently, I visited this old cemetery in Coxburg and discovered that almost everyone in that cemetery truly is related to me in some way. Beginning tomorrow, I will be posting photos of graves belonging to many of my ancestors belonging to the Netherland, Pettus, and Trigleth families.