Seneasha Cemetery, Attala County, Mississippi

Branch family members who lived and died in Attala County are buried in several cemeteries, including Good Hope Cemetery in Madison County and Hillcrest Cemetery in Goodman (Holmes County.) But Seneasha Cemetery in rural Attala County seems to have been the burial place for more Branch family members than any other cemetery in the three-county area that includes Attala, Holmes, and Madison Counties.



Entrance to Seneasha Cemetery
Attala County, Mississippi

(Photo by Natalie Maynor)

Recently, one of my blog readers who is also a distant cousin, began taking photos of grave stones in Seneasha Cemetery and uploading them onto the website known as Find-A-Grave.com. Please visit again soon to see some of these new photos and read stories about members of the Branch family.



Attala County, Mississippi
Seneasha United Methodist Church

(Photo by Natalie Maynor)

Covington Family Members Buried in Fellowship Cemetery, Attala County, MS

Henry W. Covington is the patriarch of the Covington Family in Attala County, and an account of how my Porter ancestors and the Covington family are connected can be read here. Much of the anecdotal information in that post was provided by Duncan C. Covington, a descendant of that family. Pictured above is the grave marker of Martha J. Davis Covington, Henry's third wife. According to the inscription on the replacement grave stone, Martha Davis and Henry Covington married on Valentine's Day in 1875, and Martha died about eight years later.

Several weeks ago, I wrote a post about Duncan C. Covington and his family's involvement in maintaining the very old Fellowship Cemetery in Attala County. A number of Duncan's Covington ancestors are buried in the cemetery, along with my great-great-grandfather, James M. Porter. Duncan's book, "The People of Shrock, Mississippi - 1895-1922," contains more detailed information about the Covington family and is replete with photocopies of many family members.



Ellen Covington, infant daughter of Henry W. Covington and his first wife, Laura Ellen Porter Covington, whose grave stone is pictured below.



Laura Ellen Porter was the daughter of Samuel Porter of South Carolina, and his wife Martha Middleton. Laura was also Henry W. Covington's first wife and the sister of my great-great-grandfather, James M. Porter, also buried in Friendship Cemetery.



Henry W. Covington, Jr., son of Henry W. Covington and his second wife, Amanda Fulton.



Lulu Ellen Covington, b. August 15, 1863, d. Feb 12, 1925



Covington Infant Daughter



Covington Infant Son

Although a large part of the history of the Covington family in Attala County is contained in this old cemetery, a mystery remains about Henry W. Covington's own family roots. According to Duncan, his family has never been able to determine the names of Henry's own parents. If any of my readers have any information about Henry W. Covington's parents or family members, I am certain Duncan would appreciate hearing from you.

Fellowship Cemetery - Cleanup and Repair of Stones

Recently, a nephew of Duncan C. Covington, performed some cleanup work in and around the Fellowship Cemetery in rural Attala County. Duncan's Covington ancestors are buried in this cemetery near my own paternal great-great-grandfather, James M. Porter. According to an email I received from Duncan over the Easter weekend, his nephew also repaired James M. Porter's grave stone (shown here today) that had been broken in half.

Special thanks go out to Duncan and his nephew for their work in maintaining Fellowship Cemetery, especially the graves of members of the Burel, Covington, and Porter families.



Repaired gravestone of James M. Porter
Photographed by Duncan C. Covington
Fellowship Cemetery - April 2009

Laura Ellen Porter Covington - Friendship Cemetery, Attala County

Just last week, Duncan C. Covington provided me with a listing of graves located in Fellowship Cemetery and photographs of some of those graves. Posted here today are photographs of grave markers belonging to Henry W. Covington's first wife, Laura Ellen Porter, and their daughter, Ellen, who died shortly after her birth. Laura Ellen Porter, daughter of Samuel Porter and Mary Middleton Porter, my paternal great-great-grandparents, was only 24 years old when she died. Some of the markers in this old cemetery are cracked or unreadable, and newer grave stones have been added.

Friendship Cemetery - Attala County

Last week, I talked to Duncan Covington, who compiled and edited "The People of Shrock, Mississippi, 1895 - 1922." Duncan has been kind enough from time to time to share his knowledge of Attala County families with me. Our families have deep roots in Attala County, and we have at least one familial connection that dates back to the mid-1800's, when two members of our families married. The story about this Covington-Porter connection can be read here.

During our phone conversation, I asked Duncan some questions about Fellowship Cemetery, a small old cemetery located adjacent to land Duncan owns, and where some of his relatives and my paternal great-great-grandfather, James M. Porter, are buried. It was during this discussion that I discovered Duncan had photographed the gravestones in Fellowship Cemetery and was willing to share them with me.

Friendship Cemetery is located in T12N, R4E, on 16th Section land. To drive to the cemetery, travel east from Goodman, Mississippi on Highway 14. Leave Highway 14 about 1.5 miles east of the Big Black River Bridge, turning right. Follow the pavement until it ends. Continue on the dirt road to the Shrock store. Take a right at the store past the Shrock house on the left until you reach the Shrock church. Immediately past the church, turn right on the unimproved logging road. Follow this logging road on the ridge until you reach the cemetery on your right about 1.25 miles from the public road. Although the last part of the drive can be made during the dry summer months, visitors should not attempt this portion of the drive if the weather is wet and the road is muddy.

The list reprinted below was developed on October 28, 1973 by John D. Guyton and Roy D. Cochran. Additions were made by Duncan C. Covington in 1991, and a copy of the list was provided to me via email on March 20, 2009.

Later this week, I will begin a series of posts about the families buried in Fellowship Cemetery.

ALLEN, Infant daughter of R. F. and L. J. Allen, b. and d. October 30, 1888
ALLEN, Infant son of C. C. and I. B. Allen
ALLEN, C. C., b. May 17, 1864, d. Sept. 23, 1893
ALLEN, John B., b. Dec. 1, 1877, died March 11, 1899, son of R. G. and L. J. Allen
ALLEN, Josephus, b. April 7, 1894, d. June 1, 1894
ALLEN, Sidney E., b. July 4, 1884, d. March 19, 1887, son of C. C. and I. B. Allen

BURELL, Anne Jenkins, b. 1816 in S.C., wife of William Riley Burrell, dgtr of Samuel Jenkins
BURREL, John Harrison, b. 1847, d. 1939, son of William Riley and Anne Jenkins Burrell, and great-grandson of Jean Baptiste Elzear Burel
BURRELL, Mary Ann Elizabeth, b. Nov. 14, 1867, d. Oct. 9, 1899, aged 31 yrs., 11 mos 25 days
BURRELL, Susan, b. Apr. 15 1857, d. Aug. 23, 1915, wife of J. H. Burrell
BURELL, William Riley, B. 1817 in SC, son of James P. and Nancy Elizabeth Darby Burrell

COVINGTON, Infant daughter of Mr. and Mrs. D. N. Covington, March 31, 1933
COVINGTON, D. E. b. Dec. 24, 1873, d. Jan. 1, 1908
COVINGTON, Ellen, daughter of Henry W. and Laura Ellen Porter Covington, b. 1861, d. 1861
COVINGTON, H. W., b. Jan. 31, 1832, d. Dec. 21, 1933
COVINGTON, Henry W., Jr., son of Henry W. and Amanda Fulton Covington, b. 1871, d. 1885
COVINGTON, James Howard, b. Nov. 4, 1934, d. Jan. 3, 1935
COVINGTON, Laura Ellen Porter, m. Henry W. Covington on Nov. 1, 1860, b. 1840, died 1864
COVINGTON, Lula Ellen, b. August 16, 1863, d. Feb. 12, 1925
COVINGTON, Martha J. Davis, wife of Henry W. Covington, m. Feb. 14, 1874, b. 1836, d. 1883
COVINGTON, Sicily Angeline, b. Nov. 6, 1869, d. Dec. 26, 1922

DICK, Mary C., b. Aug. 19, 1835, d. July 7, 1898

HOLLEY, Ann E., b. July 24, 1839, d. June 7, 1895, wife of Jethro Manning Holley
HOLLEY, Arthur M., b. Sept. 12, 1876, d.June 30, 1897
HOLLEY, Jethro Manning, b. Mar. 13, 1834 in SC, d. May 26, 1913, son of David Mark Holley

MURPHY, Linnie Irene, b. Jan. 4, 189, d. Feb. 19, 389, daughter of H. P. and M. R. Murphy
MURPHY, Victor Gordon, b. Oct 6, 1886, d. Jan 3, 1887, son of H. P. and M. R. Murphy

PARKER, Lenora, b. Nov. 7, 1899, d. March 10, 1901, daughter of F. M. and M. A. Parker

PORTER, J. M., b. Oct. 28, 1832, d. Oct 17, 1885 (my paternal great-great-grandfather)
PORTER, Walter W., b. Aug. 31, 1893, d. Nov. 27, 1900 (my great-grandparents' first child)

Brister Cemetery - Holmes County, MS

Although there are almost a dozen members of the Brister family buried in this old cemetery in the Hoffman community of Holmes County, Hockaday Brister, the patriarch of this pioneer family, is the oldest buried there. According to his zinc gravestone, Hockaday Brister was born on December 12, 1781, and he died on September 8, 1858, when he was 76 years, 8 months, and 25 days old.

According to the U. S. Census taken in 1850, "Hockety" Brister, age 70, headed up a household that included his wife, Nancy, age 66, and sons, Drury, age 26, and Zachariah, age 18. Although he was born in South Carolina, his wife and sons had been born in Mississippi. Mr. Brister's occupation was noted on the census as "farmer," and the real estate he owned was valued at $2,600.



Not to be confused with another, much smaller, Brister family cemetery near Bowling Green, also in Holmes County, Brister Cemetery at Hoffman contains over 200 graves. Among those buried here are members of the Allen, Harthcock, and McLellan families. Another Brister Cemetery is located at Rocky Point in Attala County, and additional members of this prolific early Mississippi family are also buried in other cemeteries in neighboring counties.

The Watts Family of Attala County

Among those buried in the Macedonia Cemetery near the community of Zama in Attala County, Mississippi, are E. H. Watts and his son, E. L. Watts. A Woodman of the World monument, slightly different from others I have posted on this blog, marks the grave of E. L. Watts.

According to the U. S. Census record of 1900, Edward H. Watts, age 49, headed up a household in Beat 5, Attala County, Mississippi, that included his wife, Mary, age 32, and two sons, Paterson E, age 22, and Ruffie, age 20. Based on Mary's age, it is almost certain that she is not Edward's first wife, and it is unlikely that she is the mother of either of Edward's adult sons living in the household. Although Edward and the other three members of his household were born in Mississippi, each family member enumerated on the census had a parent who was born in Alabama. Since the birthplace of the mother of the two Watts sons is shown as Alabama, it is reasonable to believe that Edward's wife died before the family's migration from Alabama into Mississippi.

Living next door to Edward and Mary on the 1900 census were Eabious L., age 25, and his wife Nancy B., age 24. The couple had been married 6 years, and Nancy had given birth to two children. Only one of the children, a 3-year old daughter named Ella M., born in Mississippi, was living at the time the census was recorded. The census also shows that Nancy's parents and her husband's mother were all born in Alabama.

Eabious (E.L.) Watts died early in the year he would have turned 48 years old. Not only did he die five years before his father, a sad event for any parent, but he died on his father's birthday.

Bethel Methodist Church, Attala County, MS

Right : Bethel Methodist Church, near Hesterville, in Attala County, Mississippi



Below: Bethel Cemetery, where over 300 residents and former residents are buried.

Bethel Methodist Church, an independent Methodist church, is a beautiful architectural example of small rural churches built in parts of Mississippi that were settled during the 1800's. The church was organized around 1840, although the current structure was built after the Civil War. The church and its cemetery are located about seven miles north of Kosciusko, Mississippi, off Highway 35 North, near the community known as Hesterville.

This old cemetery is the resting place for over three hundred residents or former residents of Attala County and the surrounding area, some of them original pioneers who came to the area after the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was signed with the Choctaw Indians. A number of the graves are now over 100 years old.

Among the names of those buried in Bethel Methodist Church's cemetery are Conner, Covington, Duncan, Giles, Gober, Holland, Hudson, Hull, Jamison, Jenkins, McAdory, McAfee, McCool, McElroy, Murff, Sanders, Stephens, Strahan, Sweatt, Tarver, Williams, Weatherly, and Young.

If your family is one of those listed here, and you would like to share pictures and stories of your loved ones who are buried in the Bethel Cemetery, please contact me at

www.attalacountymemories@gmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

Good Hope Cemetery - Woodmen of the World Tombstones

The Entrance to Good Hope Cemetery, established 1851, near the Good Hope Baptist Church.

Good Hope Baptist Church Cemetery is located across a well-built and maintained wooden footbridge from the church. From the footbridge, a visitor can see deep down into a wooded ravine that is part of the heavily timbered countryside that provides a beautiful, serene setting for this old church and deceased members of its community who lived during the 1800's.

To get to the church and cemetery from Highway 51 North, turn right onto Highway 17 East, and travel about 6 miles to Rocky Ridge Road, a paved and scenic county road. Stay on Rocky Ridge Road for about 5.5 miles, passing Shrock Road on the left. Turn left onto Mullinvill Road and travel approximately 500 yards to the church and cemetery directly ahead.

The cemetery is fenced, and on each side of the gate are engraved stones dedicating the cemetery to the memory of Barrett family who were instrumental in its establishment in 1851. The actual location of Good Hope Baptist Church and cemetery is in Madison County, Mississippi, but it is very near the line that separates that county from Attala County.

The tombstone you see here is located in

the cemetery at Good Hope and was erected for Edward Arthur Branch, my paternal great-grandfather. Ed, as he was known to his family and friends, was born on November 15, 1874 in Madison County, Mississippi, and he died on November 2, 1914, in Jackson, Mississippi. The inscription on the tombstone states simply "Gone Home."

Ed Branch was only 40 years old when he was diagnosed with cancer. Two days before his death, he was admitted to a hospital in Jackson for surgery that doctors believed might save his life. He died of complications from that surgery, barely two weeks away from his 41st birthday. He left a widow and five children under the age of 18, and his only son, my grandfather, had just turned 16 years old.

Before he died, Ed Branch had been a member of an organization known as "Woodmen of the World," founded in Omaha, Nebraska in 1890 by Joseph Cullen Root. According to "Wikipedia," the organization's purpose was to help its members "clear away problems of financial security....," and one of the benefits of membership was the organization's free tombstones for its members.

My great-grandfather's tombstone, one of three present in the Good Hope Cemetery, and one of many in cemeteries across the country, is a reminder of the other men who worked in one of the earliest occupations in the United States, the wood and timber industry. Use of these tombstones, unique and shaped like stumps of wood that bore the Woodmen of the World logo, was discontinued by the organization sometime around 1920.

Just Who was Mary J. Byne?

According to her intricately carved gravestone, Mary J. Byne was born in 1790 and died on May 23, 1860, and was "aged about 70 years" when she was buried in Liberty Chapel Cemetery, near Ethel, Mississippi, in Attala County. Mary's gravestone is an interesting one. It shows a young woman in a flowing dress, with her head propped in her right hand, while her right elbow and left hand are resting on a some type of monument that is similar to a tombstone.

An immediate question comes to mind.....what does the far away look represent? Is the image reflecting on years past, or is she pondering her eternal future?

Something about this gravestone made me want to know more: Just who was Mary J. Byne?

So I began a search for something about Mary the person. I wondered if I might identify her relatives, or at least the relative or friend who cared enough for her to mark her grave with such a lovely gravestone. But my search has not yet uncovered that information.

First, there are no other Byne family members buried in that cemetery or others nearby. I found this simple fact alone to be odd, since Mississippi family members were more often than not buried in the same cemetery, especially in 1860. Maybe Mary was unmarried.

Next, I searched for Mary Byne on census records in Mississippi, but I was unsuccessful in locating anyone by that name who was "about 70 years" on either the 1850 or 1860 U. S. Census Records. This finding makes me believe that Mary had not arrived in the U. S. in 1850, perhaps was living in another state, or maybe that she even had another name at that time. The fact that I did not find Mary on the 1860 U. S. Census was predictable, since she likely had already died by the time the census was taken in September of that year. Oddly, I did find a Mary J. Byne, aged 24, who lived in another Mississippi County, with other family members named "Youngblood."

As I continued to search, I found a "Mary Byne" who appears on the 1850 U. S. Census taken in the 8th Ward of the town of Madison in Jefferson County, Indiana. Mary's birthplace, like that of four other household members, was shown as "Ireland." Others enumerated in the household were Catherine, Bridget, Margarett, and Michael. Strangely, no ages and no relationships are shown for Mary or others appearing in that household. I finally located an individual enumerated as "Mary Byne"on the U. S. Census of 1860, living in Stamford (Fairfield County) Connecticut. Since she was already 71 years of age when the census record was made in August 1860, it appears unlikely this person is the Mary Byne buried in Liberty Chapel Cemetery.

Although my search did not reveal the information I sought, Mary continues to lie at rest under the lovely gravestone placed there many years ago by someone who considered her dear.

But I will continue to wonder: Just exactly who was Mary J. Byne?

The Grave of Judge Jason Adams Niles, Kosciusko City Cemetery

The grave marker shown here is that of Judge Jason Adams Niles, who was born on December 19, 1814 in Burlington, Vermont. After graduating from the University of Vermont, Jason Niles became a teacher.

While still a young man, Niles settled in Attala County, Mississippi and subsequently became a lawyer, where he was active in state and local politics for over 40 years.

Judge Niles served as a circuit judge for the 13th Judicial District from 1871 to 1872, and in 1872, he was elected to the 43rd congress, where he served one term. Judge Niles died on July 7, 1894, just a few months before his 80th birthday, and he is buried in the Kosciusko City Cemetery. The diary kept by Judge Niles between the years 1861 and 1864 is a popular tool among Attala County genealogists, since it contains an account of everyday life in Attala County during the Civil War. A link to an electronic copy of the diary, now maintained by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, can be found on the Attala County Memories blogspot, located at http://www.attalacountymemories.blogspot.com/

This Says Everything

The photographer's description simply said "A very thorough tombstone," and I wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment. It actually defies words and certainly speaks for itself. The headstone appears to be a recently erected one, located not in Attala county, but in another county in Mississippi.

My own reaction when I first saw the photo was one of near shock and disbelief. Not only was I intrigued by the unusual size and design of the stone, I was in total awe of the extensive genealogical story inscribed on the stone. The fact that it features thirteen family pictures is impressive in its own right - what a treasure trove of family information this headstone contains.

But I must ask the obvious question: Why would someone erect such an expensive and such a detailed marker? Were the families listed prominent ones in the history and the development of the community? Large and beautifully carved and detailed headstones historically have served as symbols of the social and economic importance of families throughout years past and continues in our present culture.

Could it be the headstone is the sole marker, a "combined" marker, if you will, for all family members buried in this particular portion of the cemetery?

Whatever the reason, this marker will provide a permanent road map of family history for many generations to come.