Double Springs Cemetery - Oktibbeha County, Mississippi

The steps pictured here take visitors to the small plateau that is Double Springs Cemetery, located near Maben, Mississippi. Among those buried in this cemetery in Oktibbeha County are dozens of deceased members of the Fulgham, Stallings, and Turner families. Although many buried here were born during the early 1800s, the cemetery continues to be the site of burials even today. One of the oldest graves in the cemetery is that of Osborn Brewer, who was born on April 5, 1804 in Tennessee, and who died on September 11, 1876 in Choctaw County. Oktibbeha and Choctaw are both counties formed from lands acquired after The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was signed with the Choctaw Nation.

The Brewer Children of Camden, Mississippi

So often during the 1800's, children died in infancy or while still very young, sometimes due to contagious diseases for which no vaccinations existed at the time. I feel a certain sadness each time I hear a story of a child taken from their parents at a young age, but in the case of the J. G. and M. L. Brewer family, sadness was a regular visitor to their household in the years just before the end of the 19th century.

During a span of 14 years, the Brewer family lost not only one child, but four. These young children are all buried next to each other in the Good Hope Cemetery near Camden, Mississippi.

According to the U.S. Census taken in 1880, J. G. and M. L. Brewer had two children, both daughters, named Georgia, age 5, and Macy, age 2. J. G. was 27 years old, and his wife was 21. They were children of fathers who were born in South Carolina and in Virginia, fathers who had each married wives in Mississippi.

In August of 1888, their oldest child, Georgia Ann, died just a few months after she had turned thirteen. And by 1902, another three children, all girls, had died before they reached their first birthdays.

Mary Etta Brewer

Born January 15, 1886

Died March 25, 1886

Mamie Velma Brewer

Born October 17, 1901

Died February 20, 1902

Emma C. Brewer

Born Sept. 6 1895

Died July 8, 1896

Georgia Ann Brewer

Born January 1, 1875

Died August 2, 1888