Shelton Family Cemetery

Mar 11

Site Brief:

Founded: Pre- 1850 (Possibly as early as 1830)

Location: Mt. Berry, GA

Additional name(s): Possum Trot Cemetery and Church

Affiliate group(s): N/A

History:

In 1874, my formerly enslaved third great-grandparents on my maternal ancestral line, Hardy and Mary Bearden Shelton, relocated to the Flatwoods District of Floyd County, Rome, Georgia, from nearby Coosa. Hardy was a farmer and Mary a healer. Hardy purchased 120 acres of land, which was the beginning of the Shelton Family Settlement, and it was on this land that his family grew to 12 children. Through hard work and family and community loyalty, the adult children and their spouses, purchased additional acreage and expanded the Settlement to nearly 700 acres. While at some points in time the families were prosperous, few could read and write, which lead to loss, theft, or appropriation of their land. By the mid-1920's much of the land was no longer in the possession of Shelton family members. The families migrated to other parts of the country, with a few remaining in the Rome area. Today, only the Shelton Family cemetery remains, which holds 60+ graves, 13 with a marker identifying the family member at eternal rest, but most are marked with fieldstones. A few yards from the Cemetery is the Possum Trot Church, which had many other names prior to 1902. In 1902 or so, the area became known as Possum Trot when Martha McChesney Berry, the founder of Berry College, came on the scene from her nearby home, known as Oak Hill.

Some members of the Shelton Family Settlement married members of the Freemantown Settlement of formerly enslaved blacks, located a few miles away. Both of these Settlements are now on land claimed to be owned by Berry College, a private institution, the largest land mass college in the world. While we, the descendants of the Shelton, Spruce, Shropshire, and other families, have forged a relationship with Berry College, it has been a slow slog to get them to acknowledge our ancestors. It seems there is resistance to letting the Berry community and the surrounding community know that indeed there is a cemetery full of black people directly behind the Possum Trot Church that is dubbed as the "Cradle of the College", where it all began for Martha Berry and her teaching to the "mountain children" (all white).

We are currently working with Berry College to ensure its students, faculty and the community near and far are aware of the stewards (including the Cherokee Nation) of the land that Berry College now claims and sits upon.