by Terry Thornton
email: hillcountrymonroecounty@gmail.com
One of the early Hill Country family burial grounds is known as Irvin Cemetery. Located off Gar Irvin Road in eastern Monroe County in the area known as Sipsey Fork, Irvin Cemetery was established in the 1850s or before. The majority of the burials there are without marked or dated tombstones so it is impossible to determine when the oldest or the most recent burials were at Irvin Cemetery.
What is most evident, however, is the tremendous amount of restoration that has occurred in recent years at Irvin Cemetery. The cemetery located atop a ridge just north of Gar Irvin Road can now be reached by automobile; the cemetery is protected with a chain-link fence; the grounds have been restored and underbrush and trees removed; and all thirty-four grave sites have been marked with stones. Of those, seven are marked with readable stone markers and twenty-seven are marked as unknown.
The center-piece unknown burial is a cairn of sandstones stacked into a grave-like monument.
Irvin Cemetery is located 0.06 mile east of the intersection of Sipsey Trail and Gar Irvin Road. The cemetery road is the first woods-road to the left; it allows one to drive to the cemetery which is about 0.01 mile at the top of the hill. Two signs mark the cemetery road (which may be locked with a gate; the gate was open when we were there). There is limited parked at the top of the hill and turning around at the cemetery is difficult. Attempted access by automobile is not advised during wet weather. The cemetery grounds, enclosed by a chain link fence, have an unlocked walk-through gate near the front center. The map below provides the general location of the cemetery and the two photographs show the general conditions of the access road.
Click map for a larger view.
Irvin Cemetery Road from Gar Irvin Road.
Cemetery view
On April 7, 2010, Irvin Cemetery was photographed. From the grave marker images an inventory was prepared. The alphabetized inventory lists surname, given names or initials, birth year, death year, name of cemetery, and an image number to the grave marker photograph. Where no dates were found, the symbol nd is used. Click the image number to view the grave marker to determine exact spelling of the names, more complete dates, and additional information about family relationships.
INVENTORY OF IRVIN CEMETERY
COX, Suffronia Irvin, 1852, 1923, Irvin, imgs 7201, 7202 and 7203
IRVIN, Jacob N., 1862, 1863, Irvin, imgs 7185 and 7186
IRVIN, Martha Bell, 1860, 1863, Irvin, imgs 7187 and 7188
IRVIN, Mary Ann Lowery, 1793, 1869, Irvin, imgs 7174 and 7175
IRVIN, Rigdon, 1780, 1858, Irvin, imgs 7173 and 7176
IRVIN, Sidney Towery, 1818, 1888, Irvin, imgs 7197 and 7198
IRVIN, Thomas, 1816, 1896, Irvin, imgs 7199 and 7200
UNKNOWN, nd, Irvin, img 7172
UNKNOWN, nd, Irvin, img 7177
UNKNOWN, nd, Irvin, img 7178
UNKNOWN, nd, Irvin, img 7179
UNKNOWN, nd, Irvin, img 7180
UNKNOWN, nd, Irvin, img 7181
UNKNOWN, nd, Irvin, img 7182
UNKNOWN, nd, Irvin, img 7183
UNKNOWN, nd, Irvin, img 7184
UNKNOWN, nd, Irvin, img 7189
UNKNOWN, nd, Irvin, img 7190
UNKNOWN, nd, Irvin, img 7191
UNKNOWN, nd, Irvin, img 7192
UNKNOWN, nd, Irvin, img 7193
UNKNOWN, nd, Irvin, img 7194
UNKNOWN, nd, Irvin, img 7195
UNKNOWN, nd, Irvin, img 7196
UNKNOWN, nd, Irvin, img 7204
UNKNOWN, nd, Irvin, img 7205
UNKNOWN, nd, Irvin, img 7206
UNKNOWN, nd, Irvin, img 7207
UNKNOWN, nd, Irvin, img 7208
UNKNOWN, nd, Irvin, img 7209
UNKNOWN, nd, Irvin, img 7210
UNKNOWN, nd, Irvin, img 7211
UNKNOWN, nd, Irvin, img 7212
UNKNOWN, nd, Irvin, img 7213
The earliest inventory of Irvin Cemetery is the one done in May 1938 by Evans, Baker and Crawford. They listed five marked graves; all five of those marked graves survive and are included within this photographic inventory.
Thanks to Sherman Thornton of Amory for providing transportation and assistance to Irvin Cemetery.
For a short video made in Irvin Cemetery, click here.
SOURCES:
Evans, W.A., Monroe County Mississippi Cemetery Records, as reprinted by Lowndes County [Mississippi] Department of Archives and History, 1980, page 137.
Map to Irvin Cemetery modified from the Monroe County Highway Map available at goMDOT.com.
Photographs of Irvin Cemetery by Terry Thornton, April 7, 2010.
Irvin Cemetery inventory and photographs of grave markers copyright © 2010. William T. "Terry" Thornton, Fulton, Mississippi. All Rights Reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment