Haynes Creek Bulletin
November 2010
A Newsletter from the
Haynes Creek Cemetery
Committee - Founded 1947
Haynes Creek Primitive Baptist Church - Established 1826
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. Psalms 116:15
God is so good and He has blessed me far beyond what I deserve and my expectations. Even when circumstances seem to get tough He is always there to help me through. I am so thankful for Him and all of you.
You continue to do a good job cleaning your cemetery lots and donating to the Cemetery Fund which will ensure its preservation. It is such a beautiful place. Dwight McCart (one of our committee members) and I were talking about how peaceful and serene the cemetery is. Just think, if those folks could talk, “wow”, how interesting the stories would be. Well they can’t tell us those stories but you can. We are collecting information, (stories, biographical info etc.) on people buried here. Please send us any information you have that we can keep for future use. Who knows, we may use it in our Memorial Services or newsletters. Regardless of how it is used the information will be useful for generations to come. Mail them to Larry Rutledge,
P O Box 347
,
Snellville
,
GA
30078
or e-mail to larry_rutledge@bellsouth.net.
I also want to thank our cemetery committee for their hard work. They are doing a wonderful job. We welcome our newest member, Kristy McCullers. Kristy has many family members buried here and a great interest in preserving the cemetery.
Thanks to Evelyn Elliott who has done a wonderful job as treasurer for 28 years. Because of the need to help care for her mother she had to give up the treasurer job but thankfully will remain on the committee. Nan Wilson has stepped up and agreed to be our new treasurer. Thank you Evelyn and
Nan
. Larry Rutledge
CEMETERY COMMITTEE
Founded in 1947-All Voluntary
Martha Allen
Evelyn Elliott
Nell Foster
Harold Landress
Chris Rutledge- Chairman of Grave Sales 770-861-2528
Jim Martin – Vice Chairman
770-938-0964
Kristy McCullers
Tracy Moon
Susan Pierson
Chloe Rutledge-Secretary
770-922-1589
Stephen Rutledge
Tommy Rutledge
Larry Rutledge-Chairman
770-972-2008
Janice Rutledge
Nan
Wilson- Treasurer
770-307-4426
Tony Wood
Dwight McCart
Please call us if we can be of service to you.
WEB PAGE
Our web page is www.haynescreekcemetery.com.
COPING
If you have not had coping installed around your lot, please do a.s.a.p. since our records of ownership are very limited. We may not know if it belongs to anyone or not.
MAILING LIST
Remember that it is to the benefit of the cemetery to grow our mailing list, so please notify us to add or delete family members. Send to Larry & Janice Rutledge, at e-mail larry_rutledge@bellsouth.net or call 770-972-2008.
BEFORE YOU DIG
Before you have a grave dug, it is cemetery policy to notify Chris Rutledge at 770-861-2528. This will insure our records are up to date. Also tell the diggers to remove all extra dirt and not dump it on cemetery property. The dumping in the past has become a problem.
WORK DAYS
We have 2 planned work days each year. You are invited to join us on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, November 20, 2010 this year, and the third Saturday in April. Many thanks to all that have given of your time on our work days.
CLEANING POLICY
As a part of our workday, our policy is to remove any old looking faded flowers. It would be very helpful if you did it on your lot before we have to. All of this is for the total beautification of the cemetery. Thanks for your help in this.
MEMORIAL SERVICE
Our 5th annual Memorial Service, May 2nd 2010 was a great success. Legacy of Praise sang for us and we had a time for remembering those that had passed on in the last 12 months. Rev. Kenneth Hughes presented a devotional about the importance of remembering things of the past. Dwight McCart talked of old times around
Haynes
Creek
Church
and how he and his friends would play in the abandoned baptismal pool across the street from the church and how snakes would run them out. Larry Rutledge told brief stories of Savilenette Thomas who while cutting down a tree, it fell on her and Mr. Buck Knight saved her life. She in turn gave several acres to him where the now
Knight Circle
goes through, very near the church. Then Mr. (Big) Wiley Webb who owned the 2nd largest plantation in
Gwinnett
County
committed suicide after the Union troops destroyed much of his crops etc. and Mr. Olin Gresham, who spend many years working on the cemetery and was a member of the church. Also Larry told a story about Mr. Henry Columbus Clay, a Civil War Soldier that is told again later in this newsletter. All of these people are buried here. Mrs. Nell Foster who is now 104 years old and a committee member, told us why some of the graves behind the church had rock boxes built over them. “It was to keep the cows and horses from stepping on them.” This was all a good time of remembering.
Our next Memorial Service is planned for May 1, 2011, at 3:00 p.m. inside the church. Please mark your calendar and come help us keep all those memories alive.
OUTSIDE INFORMATION BOARD
We now have our information board set up with the names of people buried along with their grave number and a plat for people visiting to easily find someone. We have Sections 2, 3 and 4 and are still working on Section 1, the hardest one.
BURIALS SINCE OUR LAST NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER 2009
Rosa Lee Smith 9/29/1916 - 12/8/2009
Kathy Lee McCart 6/13/1954 - 1/1/2010
R. L. Triplett 6/28/1953 - 4/3/2010
Marion Clayton Middlebrooks 8/7/1919 - 2/21/2010
Christine Clay 6/7/1918 - 5/8/2010
Joyce Hayes Simonton 2/6/1945 - 6/1/2010
We wish the very best to the families and friends.
THANK YOU
Thanks for all you do to help maintain our historical cemetery, whether it be physical or financial or both. Remember your donation is tax deductible and all is appreciated very much.
You may send your donations to our treasurer at:
Haynes
Creek
Cemetery
Committee, % Nancy Wilson,
95 McElroy Street
, Winder, GA 30680.
STORIES OF THE PAST OF PEOPLE BURIED IN THE CEMETERY
By: Bobby G. Jackson, Colonel, USAF, Retired
Grandpa Henry Columbus Clay and the Civil War.
Grandpa Clay, mama’s daddy, Henry Columbus Clay II, born 12 May 1880, died 12 January 1936, was the son of great-grandpa Henry Columbus Clay Senior, Born 6 April 1841, died 8 October 1920, who served in the civil war.
He enlisted in the Confederate States of America Army, Company H, 11th Georgia Infantry “Walton County Infantry” on 3 July 1861, was wounded in the thigh by cannon fire at the Battle of Rappahannock, Virginia on 28 August 1861 also in the head at The Battle of Gettysburg Pennsylvania on 2 July 1863.
He was a sharp shooter near “Devil’s Den” at
Gettysburg
when he was shot in the forehead with a minie ball. He survived by drinking water from a small creek and eating green corn from a corn field for three days and later recovered enough to try and get on a Yankee wagon filled with wounded Yankee soldiers. They kept kicking him off and finally a Yankee captain told them “if that Rebel wants on so bad let him ride”. On 5 July 1863 he found himself on the way to
Decamp
General
Hospital
on David’s Island in
New York
Harbor
as a prisoner of war.
A newspaper article described the prisoners as arriving “…in a wretched condition, dirty, ragged and covered with vermin…”. A storm came through the harbor and swamped the hospital and killed almost all of the prisoners and guards.
Great Grandpa Clay survived and was paroled at
Decamp
General
Hospital
, David’s Island and exchanged for Yankee prisoners at
City Point
,
Virginia
on 8 September 1863. He was treated in the
General
Hospital
at
Petersburg
,
Virginia
until 31 August 1864, then placed on
wounded furlough and told to go home until further notice.
He asked how was he to get home to
Walton County
,
Georgia
, five hundred miles from
Petersburg
,
Virginia
and was told that he would have to walk. He started out and subsisted on what little fruit and vegetables he could get as he traveled south. He had to dodge the bands of renegades that were roaming the countryside robbing, killing and plundering.
For the rest of his life he wore a metal plate and headband to cover the scar and hole on his forehead. He died at the age of 79 on 8 October 1920.
He was awarded a disability pension of $50.00 per year on the 4th day of April 1896 by reason of his wounds as follows: minie ball entering and tracking over part of frontal skull bone, fracturing nasal bone. The wound is still open and painful, requiring artificial metal and cloth enclosures. This wound renders him unfit and unable to perform actual manual labor and exposure to heat or cold produces severe pain with vertigo and dizziness.”
MAY GOD CONTINUE TO RICHLY BLESS EACH OF YOU. PLEASE PRAY FOR GOD’S LEADERSHIP AND HELP AS WE CONTINUE TO HONOR AND UPHOLD THE MEMORIES OF OUR LOVED ONES THAT HAVE GONE BEFORE US.