FREEDOMLAND CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1854

ADDITONAL NAMES: Colored People's Burial Ground

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

This site sits in Floyds Knobs, IN which is on the Indiana side of the Louisville metro area. The location is not easy to get to. It's about half a mile hike, deep in the woods on a steep hill and flows into a valley. In the mid 1800's this area would have been considered "the country", of New Albany, IN and Louisville, KY. Many escaping slavery ended up right over the KY border in Southern, Indiana. This would have been one of the segregated cemeteries, in one of the first union cities to border a confederate state in Indiana.

This cemetery contains appx 300 souls, however, some believe there could be closer to 1,000. It's also speculated to possibly be the largest segregated cemetery in the state of Indiana. The site dates back to 1854 from a deed. However, I personally suspect the site to be much older due to the number of stone markers with no information engraved. There are only appx 6-10 headstones that are legible. Most of the sites are marked with a colorful piece of stone. And many are no longer marked at all.

BCN Contact Information:

Piper Robbins

piperrobbins@gmail.com

SHELTON FAMILY CEMETERY

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

ADDITONAL NAMES: Possum Trot Cemetery and Church

AFFILIATION(S): N/A

HISTORY:

By 1874, during reconstruction, my formerly enslaved, matrilineal third great-grandparents, Hardy and Mary Shelton relocated to the Flatwoods District of Floyd County, Rome, Georgia, from nearby Coosa, also known as the North Carolina District (http://www.samhardin.family/coosa/index.html). Hardy was a farmer, and Mary was a homemaker and healer. On December 19, 1874, Hardy purchased 120 acres of land on lot 59, thereby establishing the Shelton Family Settlement (as referenced by current descendants). It was on this land that their family grew to 12 children (Laura, Lucy, Frances, Aaron Hardy, Mary, Henri, Rhoda, Lula, Joel Lee, William, Matilda, and Judy). Through hard work, courage, determination, and family and community loyalty, the Shelton’s descendants and their spouses purchased additional acreage, expanding their land ownership to nearly 700 acres. The families prospered despite a lack of formal and/or limited education. However, over time, numerous land transactions, and as the men died, much of the land was eventually sold or lost to alleged debt. By the mid-1920s, with few exceptions, much of the land was no longer possessed by Shelton family descendants. As a result, many descendants migrated to other parts of the country for work and to begin anew. Some descendants chose to remain in Rome and surrounding areas.

Today, only the Shelton Family Cemetery remains as evidence of our ancestor's habitation and hard work on the surrounding land. Deed research conducted by an architectural historian of deeds from 1858 and forward, indicate the 1.5 acres of land (Lots 49 and 60) upon which the Shelton Family The cemetery and the Possum Trot Church lie and fail to support ownership by the Shelton family or their descendants. And from 1858, forward, the land was excepted from any sale or transfer. The 1858 deed was held by James M. Spullock, a lawyer, who likely inherited the land from his father. Ongoing research appears to point to the Spullock (Spurlock spelling variation) family as the likely enslavers of the Shelton family in Georgia. The deeds also show that the 1.5 acres were never purchased through legal sale by Berry College. Instead, the land was “appropriated” as indicated in the history of Possum Trot as posted on the college website, likely through pedes possession by Martha Berry, founder of Berry College. In other words, the land was subsumed by her because she owned vast amounts of the surrounding land. It is unlikely we will ever know the full truth surrounding the land transactions. The Shelton Family Cemetery holds 60+ graves, 12 of which have a marker identifying the family member at eternal rest, but most are marked with fieldstones or nothing at all (Ground Penetrating Radar revealed the approximate number of graves, with indications that there are likely more). Several yards from the Shelton Family Cemetery sits the historic Possum Trot Church, built around 1830 to 1850. Before 1900, the church was known as the Primitive Baptist Church and School, and possibly the Pleasant Hill Church and School. In 1900, the area became known as Possum Trot when Martha McChesney Berry, “appropriated” the alleged abandoned church for use as a Sunday School and School (until 1954) for the white mountain children.

BCN Contact Information:

Angela R. James

Shelton Descendants Historical Society

313.598.0117

info@sheltondescendants.org

sheltondescendants.org@gmail.com

FREEMANTOWN CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1871

ADDITONAL NAMES: Freemans, Jones, Montgomery, Rogers Sanfords

AFFILIATION(S): None

HISTORY:

Several sources, however, make it clear that by this time the name Freemantown is well established. In November 1910 Henrietta Freeman and her children Mingo Freeman, Josephine Rodgers, Henrietta Montgomery, and Fredonia Perry confirm a lost deed from Thomas Freeman to the Trustees of Freemans Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States of America. In a 1949 document describing his 1909 marriage to Luna Presley, Henry Grady Terrell recollects “Driving to Mountain Springs Methodist Church at the foot of Lavender Mountain and just off old Bryant Gap Road … At the home of George Rolland and Sally Vaughn Presley. From there took Luna Presley … And at midafternoon we drove to Freeman Town, then to Redmond Gap Road and drove along the fence toward Rome. To the Rev. William Cooper's home which was about one mile west of Berry Schools an[d] about one half of a mile north of the present Battey State Hospital, and united in Holy matrimony.”[18] In the 1910 census, Luna's father Roland Presley and his second wife Ella, who are white, are enumerated on the same page as Henrietta Freeman’s daughter Josephine Rodgers and her sister-in-law Susan Freeman.

The first sale of Freeman land to the Berry Schools occurred in 1916, when Essex Freeman’s widow, Hannah Montgomery Freeman, sold her portion of Lot 20 for $1,450.[19] By 1920 the impact of the school is becoming significant. School Superintendent Henry Grady Hamrick, his wife Ethel, son, and three Berry students are practically next door to Henrietta Freeman and her granddaughter Beatrice Freeman.[20] Of the children, only Mingo and Francis Freeman are close. Henrietta and Gib Montgomery are in an adjacent district and Hannah Freeman lives in Rome. Fredonia Perry still lives in Tennessee and Henrietta and Gib Montgomery have moved to Michigan. Burials in the Freeman Chapel cemetery will continue for a few years[21], but the end of Freemantown is near.

On 21 March 1923, five months before her death, Henrietta Freeman sold the 25 acres she inherited from Thomas Freeman to the Berry Schools for $800. Fredonia Perry sold the same year. The other children and the heirs of those who had died would hold on to their land for a few more years, finally selling the last of the land in 1926. The places of residence of the sellers include Rome, Georgia; Arlington, Tennessee; Detroit; and Seattle.

Henrietta Freeman died on 17 August 1923, of heart disease, at the age of 95. Her son Mingo Freeman gave information for her death certificate, including the names of her parents, William and Dista Freeman. She was buried at Freemantown Cemetery, on 19 August 1923.

BCN Contact Information:

Cheryl Freeman Snipes

cfsnipes@freemantown.org