The Veazey Family Buried in Berea Cemetery

Above: Entrance to Berea Cemetery

Right: Berea Cemetery

Gravemarker for John Henry Veazey, born 1847 in Georgia. Veazey died in Attala County in 1828. Inscribed on the marker are these words: "His words were kindness, His deeds were love, His spirit humble, He rests above."

Gravestone of Isobella Wade Veazey

b. August 5, 1849

d. November 17, 1929

"Wife of John Henry Veazey, Sr."

Berea Cemetery is the final resting place for members of the Veazey Family of Attala County, Mississippi. This family was once headed by John H. Veazey, Sr. and his wife, Isobella Wade Veazey. According to the U. S. Census taken in 1880, John Henry and Isabella Veazey were living in northeast Attala County, in Beat 2, Township 15. John's occupation was shown to be "farmer," and his birthplace, and that of his parents, was shown as "Georgia." In 1880, when the census was recorded, John and Isabella Veazey were parents to five children, William R., age 6, Mary V., age 4, James T., age 3, John H., age 2, and Arther L., age 8 months. The census record showed that all five children, as well as their mother, had been born in Mississippi. Other members of the Veazey family who are buried in Berea Cemetery are:

Arthur Lat Veazey, b. 1879 d 1966
Batha Baba Veazey, b. Sep. 1, 1889 d. Sep. 24, 1892
Benjamin W. Veazey, Apr., 1882 d. Mar., 1963
Bessie W. Veazey b. 1887 d. 1972
James Thomas Veazey b. Feb. 22, 1877 d. Jun. 14, 1963
Leona Buckner Veazey b. Jan. 6, 1880 d. Aug. 5, 1921
Maggie Veazey, b. Mar., 1892 d. March 1937
Rufus Hall Veazey, b. Mar. 28, 1884 d. unknown

Franklin Cemetery

Franklin Cemetery, located in rural Holmes County, is another very old cemetery in Mississippi that contains graves of those who migrated to the state in the 1800's. Family names of some of those who are buried in Franklin Cemetery include Ambrose, Coleman, Drennan, Gage, Gibson, Lipsey, Noel, Sample, and Wharton.

St. Joseph Cemetery, Gluckstadt, Mississippi

Gluckstadt, which means "Lucky Village" in German, was settled in June of 1905 by five German farmers from Klaasville, Lake County, Indiana, whose names were Henry Klaas, John Kehle, Valentine Fitsch, Peter Schmidt and Joseph Weilandt. Later that year, they were joined by a number of other families. For approximately a dozen years, these families, who shared a common religion, their Catholic faith, met in family homes once a month, when a visiting priest traveled to their farming community to celebrate Mass. In 1917, the community erected a building that served as both school and church. Some years later, the building burned completely, but it was successfully rebuilt and dedicated in June 1929.

Near St. Joseph's Church is the cemetery by the same name that became the resting place for these early settlers and their families. Among those who have been laid to rest in St. Joseph Cemetery are those with the surnames of Aulenbrock, Kiehle, Klaas, Minninger, Schmidt, and Ulrich. Gravestones for some of those names are pictured here

Math Schmidt
b. March 27, 1879, in Germany
d. May 16, 1966


Teresa Hasse Schmidt
b. September 3, 1887, in Klaasville,
Lake County, Indiana
d. July 16, 1956

Anna Miller Minninger, b. September 27, 1890, d. July 12, 1967

John A. Minninger, b. September 23, 1889, d. August 6, 1983

Theresa Callahan Kehle
b. December 5, 1895 in Atlanta, GA
d. December 10, 1980 in Gluckstadt, MS

John Kehle, b. July 2, 1868 in

Hittensweiler, Germany

d. December 24, 1963

Gluckstadt, Mississippi

Henry A. Klaas

b. June 15, 1857
d. May 23, 1916

Mary M. Klaas
b. December 5, 1861

d. November 19, 1937

Note: All photographs are courtesy of Natalie Maynor

Canton Cemetery

Entrance to the Canton Cemetery, located
in Canton, Mississippi, the county seat of
Madison County (Photo courtesy of Natalie Maynor)



A view of this old cemetery that contains
almost 3,000 graves, with many dating back to
the early 1800's (Photo courtesy of Natalie Maynor)

The town of Canton, Mississippi, is the location for this old and historic cemetery, where some families have buried their loved ones for almost two centuries. The cemetery is definitely a place to start for those who are tracing family roots in Madison County or the nearby counties of Attala, Holmes, and Yazoo. The Madison County Courthouse is also located in Canton, and it contains a wealth of genealogy information that dates back to the early 1800's. The courthouse, a large antebellum structure situated in the center of the downtown square, was the setting for filming portions of the movie version of John Grisham's novel, "A Time to Kill."

Ezra L. Hearst, buried in Seneasha Cemetery

Seneasha Cemetery, located near Seneasha United Methodist Church, has many old graves of deceased individuals who were born in the 1800's. One of those graves is that of Ezra L. Hearst, who was born May 23, 1873, and who died on July 10, 1908. A number of other Hearst family members are buried in Seneasha Cemetery, near Newport, Mississippi, as well as members of several allied families, including Dickerson, Donald, Holley, McDaniel, Mabry, and Presley.

The monument at the gravesite of Ezra Hearst includes an inscription that states "In Memorium to the Loving Memory of My Dear Husband." Above the inscription are engravings of the fronts of buildings similar to the design of those in Jerusalem or elsewhere in that region of the world. A masonic symbol also appears near the top of the stone. The name HEARST is engraved near the bottom of the monument, and an inscription honoring the deceased states "His mightiest pursuits form the noblest monument to his memory." According to his monument, Ezra L. Hearst died in Fort Worth, Texas when he was only 35 years old.

According to the U. S. Census taken in 1900, Ezra headed up a household in Newport, Attala County, Mississippi, that included his wife, Ida F. Hearst, born in April 1870, and Elizabeth V. Turner, born in September 1843. Ezra's occupation was shown to be that of "farmer." The birthplaces of Ezra and Ida Hearst were recorded as "Mississippi." Elizabeth Turner, according to the census record, was Ezra's mother-in-law, a woman who was born in 1843 in South Carolina to parents who were born there, as well. In 1900, the Hearst family lived near families with the names of Clower, Donald, Flowers, Nichols, O'Leary, and Ousley.

I have been unable to discover the cause of Ezra Hearst's death in Fort Worth, Texas, over five hundred miles west of Attala County, Mississippi. Based on the loving and respectful inscriptions on his grave marker, I can only imagine that Ezra Hearst must have died a hero.

William Nichols, the Architect from Bath, England

Photo by Natalie Maynor

Entrance to Odd Fellows Cemetery located
in Lexington, the County Seat of Holmes
County, Mississippi

Photo by Natalie Maynor

The inscription on the gravestone of William Nichols (pictured above) includes the letters "ARCHT" after his name, and according to the inscription, William Nichols, a native of Bath, England, died on December 12, 1853, when he was "aged 73 years." The monument marking the grave of William Nichols is one of the oldest in Odd Fellows Cemetery in Lexington.

Photo by Natalie Maynor

William Nichols was a native of Bath, England whose profession was that of architect, as his gravestone states. He is remembered in Holmes County as the designer of the second courthouse in Lexington, Mississippi, a structure that later burned in 1893. Nichols also designed the Old Capitol Building and the Mississippi Governor's Mansion, historic state buildings located in Jackson, Mississippi.

Sebastian and Bridget Haffey Burns

St. Mary of the Springs Catholic Cemetery, in Madison County, Mississippi, near Rayville, is the final resting place for a large number of individuals with Irish ancestry who came to Madison County to live in the late 1800's. Some of the individuals buried in this old Catholic cemetery have surnames such as Burns, Doherty, Donahoe, Haffey, McGowan, Murray, Murphy, and Shannon. Two of these families have a large number of their loved ones buried in St. Mary of the Springs Cemetery, and these same two families, Burns and Haffey, had children who married each other.



Bridget Haffey, born May 10, 1869, married Sebastian B. Burns, who was born on October 17, 1866. Sebastian died August 19, 1929, and Bridget Haffey Burns died on June 3, 1939. A picture of their double gravestone, with the name "Burns" inscribed on the stone that separates the two larger stones, is shown here.

Sebastian Burns was born in Mississippi to Patrick Burns, a native of Ireland, and to Sarah Krafts Burns, who was born in South Carolina. According to the U. S. Census of 1870, Sarah and Patrick were living at that time in Police District 4 of Madison County. Sebastian, at three years old, was the oldest of the three children in the household. His siblings were James, age 2, and Mary, age 1, and both children, like Sebastian, were born in Mississippi. The Burns family lived near other families where the adults had been born in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, and where the children in these household were born after arriving in Mississippi.



In 1880, when the U. S. Census was taken that year, Patrick and Sarah Burns were still living in Madison County, near Sharon, Mississippi. Their family had grown, and Sebastian (now shown as S. Joseph Burns,) had six brothers and sisters. James, age 11, was now known as "Tim," likely an abbreviation for his other name. And Mary, now called "Annie," was 10 years old. Other children in the household were Sallie, age 7, Joe, age 6, Katie, age 4, and John, age 3. M. J. Krafts, age 71, was shown as Sebastian's father-in-law, and had possibly become a widower at some time during the past ten years.



In 1900, Sebastian and Bridget Haffey Burns, married for four years, were enumerated on the U. S. Census and were the parents of a nine-month old daughter, Annie. Bridget birthplace was shown as Ireland, as was the birthplace of her parents. The surnames of neighbors of the Burns family included both Burns and Haffey, as well as others named Alexander, Boddie, Clanton, Henry, and Luckett.



In 1920, when the U.S. Federal Census was recorded, a birthplace of Mississippi was fairly common among most of the individuals living in close proximity to the Burns family, both adults and children. Sebastian and Bridget had moved to another location in Madison County, near Camden, and they had six children, two daughters and four sons. The children's names were Josephine, age 17, Edward, age 15, Catherine, age 13, twins Paul and Willie, age 10, and John B., age 8. This farm family of eight was shown to be renting their home in a very remote and rural area of Madison County, and economic times were likely tough, to say the least.



Ironically, by 1920, out of several dozen adults living near Sebastian and Bridget Haffey Burns in Camden, Mississippi, their family were the only individuals who had a parent born outside the United States.