Headstone Projects

     The association as one of it's many functions, replaces, cleans or repairs headstones that are over 100 years old.

     This year with monies from the cemetery fund we were able to do this work in a couple of cemeteries. 

     The first gravestone replaced this year was that of Sallie Barnett  "Nettie" Whigham, daughter of Thomas Galloway Whigham, now has a headstone placed by the Association.  Her original headstone was broken and buried in the ground.  It was difficult to find and read. 

     The discovery of her grave was the impetus for the cemetery project.  She now has a new headstone placed by the Association.  This stone is shared by her uncle, Samuel A. Whigham, whose original headstone at Old Batesville, could not be found. 

    The second cemetery to get work done was Weycott Plantation (Providence Cemetery) in Barbour County, Alabama.  There some stones were reset and a new headstone was placed for Sarah Adela Lawson Whigham.  She was the wife of Samuel A. Whigham. 

      The third cemetery to have work done was Providence Cemetery in Milry, Washington County, Alabama.  There some stones were fixed and cleaned and a new headstone was placed for Thomas Marcus Whigham.  His older stone had been repaired previously, but the repair did not take and the stone broke again. 

“Your tombstone stands among the rest;

Neglected and alone.

The name and date are chiseled out

On polished, marbled stone.

It reaches out to all who care

It is too late to mourn.

You did not know that I exist

You died and I was born.

Yet each of us are cells of you

In flesh, in blood, in bone.

Our blood contracts and beats a pulse

Entirely not our own.

Dear Ancestor, the place you filled

One hundred years ago

Spreads out among the ones you left

Who would have loved you so.

I wonder if you knew

That someday I would find this spot,

And come to visit you.”

Author Unknown

       This is the new stone placed by the association for Samuel A. Whigham and Sallie Barnett Whigham.  Sallie was Samuel's niece and Thomas Galloway Whigham and Annie Judson Wallace Whigham's daughter. The are buried in Old Batesville Church Cemetery in Barbour County, Alabama.

  
       This is Sarah Adella Lawson Whigham new headstone in Weycott Plantation (Providence Cemetery in Barbour County, Alabama. 

       This is Sarah Adella Lawson Whigham's headstone in about 2005.  When we returned to Weycott Plantation in 2009 there was no indication that she was ever interred in the Cemetery. 

        The work above is an example of the success of the organization's cemetery fund.  The funds raised at our Silent Auction and Cake Walk at the annual Family Reunion is what funds this project.  It is with the tireless dedication of our members that we have items(many handmade and/or homegrown) that we can auction to raise funds.  It is also the efforts of the members of the organization that we have people who bid on these items to help raise funds.  We thank everyone for their efforts.