What do you think? Send us your thoughts in a letter to the editor. Click here for a form and letters policy or send to letters@gainesvilletimes.com (no attached files please). Include your full name, hometown and a contact number for confirmation.
On Camp Wahsega Road, about a mile before it ends at Camp Merrill, is a tiny cemetery called Shady Grove, a place that time has forgotten. It was attached to a small Methodist church that was razed about 80 years ago on land given to the Methodist Church by our several-times-great grandpa Jacob Saine in the mid-1800s.
Current tax records indicate that 1.2 acres is all that's left of the original gift. Most of the graves have rock markers but many are legible. The woods are crowding the graves at the edge of the property and the grounds are covered with a sea of tough knee-high ferns, broom sage and tree sprouts.
With no congregation to "own" the cemetery and family members getting older and more scattered, maintenance has been neglected for years. My cousins Loy Saine, Bobbie Butler and I are employing several methods to find people who might have information about the identity of the cemetery residents; who are available to help with some manual labor in the fall; and who might be willing to help finance and/or build a fence around the cemetery.
Following is a list of the names we took from the headstones: Abee (Mary W, Eli Ii), Black (Bill, Gussie, Henry, Effie, Robert, Field, America, Lewis C.), Edmondson (Bessie), Gaddis (Caty C., Lewis Clark, Nancy), Head (Andrew H, Susie H.), Meers; Mincy (Lura), Morgan (Henry), Pitner (Asenath, James), Sain (Samuel), Saine (William Evan, Wine).
I remember being a member of Memorial Day (aka, Decoration Day) cleanup parties when I was a kid. I would be happy to establish a network of people willing to provide time and elbow grease for cleanup efforts.
If you would like to help, please contact me at chiefbetty@gmail.com. Help us honor our ancestors by caring for their final resting place.
Betty (Saine) Petrie
Dahlonega