Raised by her grandparents who were sharecroppers in northern Hall County, Gladystine Green wanted to honor them by finding their resting place and having it restored.

She mentioned this dream about 10 years ago to local historian and friend James Brooks, who made it his mission - along with his group, the Restoration and Preservation Mission - to find the graves.

Now known as Wahoo Cemetery, the area was originally part of the Thompson family farm in North Hall. A portion of the property was designated a black cemetery, but generations later, the cemetery had been forgotten and fallen into disrepair.

Green told Brooks the general location of the cemetery and he began his search on Nancy Creek Road. The cemetery he found, which has hundreds of graves from the 1880s on, was located just past the fire station on Nancy Creek - but it was so densely wooded that a cleanup project had to begin.

"It had nothing to do with taking credit, it's just getting it done," Brooks said. "The leader of this group (Restoration and Preservation Mission) died several years ago ... John Hood. I went to him and I said Mrs. Green is the oldest member of the church (St. Paul United Methodist) and she's talked about this place, so it would be nice to do something and find that site."

What he found, though, was so overgrown it was nearly impossible to access.

"You could only get in about 20 feet," he said. "It was impenetrable."

Brooks, whose group has restored the Eureka Cemetery and has two more in the works, found Wahoo Cemetery and the former location of Wahoo Church in 2000. They finished the bulk of the cleanup project less than a year ago, with new mulch now marking the sacred site.

The initial goal for the property was to clean up the grave sites of Green's family, but then the project took on a life of its own, according to Anderson Flen, the chairman of the Restoration and Preservation Mission.

"Her initial thing was to improve the head markers on her family site there, and several of us, including some of her relatives, said we can do better than that in terms of really doing the whole piece there," Flen said.

Along with the gravesites of Green's grandparents, George and Mimie Burt, the group also cleaned and refurbished the headstones for her mother, Effie Burt, uncle Stewart Burt and cousin Marion Jennings. For some family members, the group also added some headstones.

"Part of it was getting it so you could get to that plot," Flen said. "You had to make it at least accessible, and so in doing that ... it led to other people beginning to have ideas."

Green, who died this past August at 96, was worried she wouldn't live to see the cemetery complete, friends said.

But she did live to see the project complete, and she was blown away by the results, Brooks said.
"She said we had gone beyond what she had expected," according to Flen, who lives in Atlanta. "The thing that was so endearing about her - you knew what she was saying was sincere - but in addition to that she would write a check every month for $25 to the (North Georgia) Community Foundation."

Flen said there were a number of groups and individuals who were influential in getting the cemetery cleaned up, but none more than Gladystine Green. "She helped rally other people around that cause and the need to do something there."

Along with Green's family, hundreds of other graves are now back to good condition from the work of the Gainesville community. Many of the headstones - which include rocks, clay markers and some granite markers - are unmarked and their history lost forever.

"In some old cemeteries you can go in and see a yucca plant (placed as a headstone) that was there to beautify it, locate it and to keep rodents from going into the grave site," Brooks said. "I think I have sent out about 60 letters to people that have the same surnames that may be related to them ... whether they live locally or wherever."

It took Brooks and all the volunteers about five years to get the cemetery in good condition, but it was a labor of love because the community came together. Some influential volunteers included John Hood Jr., Durwood Pepper, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and First United Methodist Church.

"It was a challenge initially but once we put out a call to different individuals in the African-American community, it made it easier," Flen said. "The good thing is the whole Hall County and Gainesville community is a real good community. ... That speaks volumes for the community's maturity, that they're concerned and caring not only about the present and the future but especially about the past and the contributions that those people made in some significant way."

Now that the cemetery is cleaned up and in good condition, Brooks said he is hoping to pull together some history of the land that was owned by the Thompsons, one of the oldest families in Gainesville.

Ed Dunlap, 86, a local descendent of the Thompsons, said his great-grandfather Andrew Thompson gave the land for the cemetery and Wahoo Church to the farm's sharecroppers. The Thompson farm was 1,500 acres in northern Hall County, Dunlap said.

Dunlap added that he passes the Wahoo Cemetery every day. "I'm glad they cleaned it up."

But for Brooks and Pepper, it's more than the cleanup - they say this part of Hall County's history is remarkable.

Brooks said he thinks the most interesting grave at Wahoo is the headstone of Sarah Martin that is defaced with ‘KKKK.' Martin was born on March 20, 1857, and died Nov. 6, 1883.

"This is my favorite ... the one that I always show people," Brooks said of the Martin headstone. "It's one aspect of our history, our race relations; they need to be addressed. We can't change our history; we have to accept it and acknowledge it."

Along with Martin, there are many buried with the last name Thompson and Couch. There are names of the Robinsons and the McKinneys, along with a victim of the 1936 tornado and a couple of WWI veterans.

Brooks said he went through and photographed every tombstone, "but I don't know a lot about the families," he said.

He just hopes one day that students or a university might take interest in the cemetery.

"Hopefully, one day we get some students interested enough ... geology, archeology students, that will have equipment and ascertain, at least the probability, that this is definitely a gravesite," Brooks said. "What else would be here?"

But in the near future, the Hall County Master Gardeners, of which Pepper is a member, may volunteer some time to continue to beautify the cemetery.

"First we have to get an architect or somebody to make plans of what would grow good out here," he said. "There's no water out here, so it would have to be drought plants, sun-loving plants or low maintenance (plants)."

Hall County Master Gardener President Laurie Carson said she can envision "planting vines to cover the fence completely and planting the knock-out roses that bloom so pretty. ... It could be easy to make it look better and give it some color."