The grave marker of Lucy A. Nethery (1820s - 1880s)

by Terry Thornton
email: hillcountrymonroecounty@gmail.com

Recently I photographed and inventoried the restored Nethery Cemetery in eastern Monroe County, Mississippi. The cemetery is lovely and is carefully maintained. In the online article I posted about Nethery Cemetery (click to read) I noted that one grave from the 1938 inventory of the cemetery done by Evans, Baker, and Crawford was not to be found. That grave was for Lucy A. Nethery (spelled Neatherly in the Evans inventory).

A couple of days ago my brother Sherman Thornton of Amory telephoned from the cemetery saying his wife Patricia Johnson Thornton had spotted a grave marker several feet from the cemetery but easily visible from the cemetery access road. At my prodding Sherman got out of his vehicle (he is afraid of snakes) and walked into the woods to determine the name on the marker. When he told me it was a restored marker for someone named Lucy (he couldn't read the rest of the marker in the late afternoon/early evening light), I knew I had to get back to the cemetery for another look.

Today I drove to Nethery Cemetery and located the grave marker of Lucy A. Nethery some 175 feet eastsoutheast of the cemetery right where Patricia and Sherman told me it would be. But the marker is not in the cemetery where Evans inventoried it more than seventy years ago.

The following photographs show the marker and its relationship to the main cemetery.

Lucy Nethery's grave marker is about 175 feet southeast of Nethery Cemetery. The marker, however, was inventoried in 1938 as being within Nethery Cemetery.

The back of Lucy Nethery's grave marker can be seen just a few feet off the right side of the cemetery access road.

Near the restored grave marker for Lucy Nethery is a broken base to a marker. The base is presumed to be the original one for Lucy Nethery's marker.

The five fragments of Lucy Nethery's marker have been reassembled within a metal cage which supports and protects the marker.

I've added an update the Nethery Cemetery inventory online to include Lucy A. Nethery --- but I've no clue as to how her restored marked ended up so far removed from the cemetery.

Thanks Patricia Johnson Thornton for spotting the grave marker and thanks Sherman for telling me exactly where to look. The marker is easily visble from the cemetery access road on the right side as you start up the hill to Nethery Cemetery.

Photographs of the grave marker for Lucy A. Nethery April 13, 2010 copyright © 2010. William T. "Terry" Thornton, Fulton, Mississippi. All Rights Reserved.