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history says this cemetery was established in 1838 by the Smyrna
Methodist Church. However, Wylie Flannigan of Campbell County,
Ga. took title to Land Lot 522 in which the cemetery is located,
on July 1, 1843 after paying Georgia $5.00 for the 40 acre lot
distributed in the 1832 Land Lottery.
The first
marked grave is the one for Elijah Fleming who died April
8, 1848.
The earliest
deed found involving this property is one from Hardy Pace
to the Smyrna Methodist Church dated in 1915. It replaced
a deed dated 1846, which was destroyed in the Civil War when
Sherman's troops burned the area.
The Methodist
Church originally sold burial lots for $10.00 and gave deeds
to the owners. The church deeded the cemetery to the City
of Smyrna in 1959.
The cemetery
is located directly across Atlanta Road from the Smyrna Museum.
It is actually older than Atlanta's historic Oakland Cemetery,
which was established in 1850.
Dozens
of Smyrna's early pioneers are buried there including: Dunn,
Fleming, Foster, Hill, Hamby, Whitfield and John Moore - Smyrna's
first mayor. Drive around the city and you will see their
names on the street signs.
One of
the more interesting burials that took place there was when
Joe Chaney's arm was accidentally shot off. The arm was buried
in the cemetery and Mr. Chaney would often visit the grave
and place flowers on it. When Mr. Chaney died on May 14, 1954,
the rest of his remains were buried at New Smyrna Cemetery,
about one mile from his arm.
A Pathway
of Honor curves from the entrance on Memorial Drive to the
middle of the cemetery. Engraved memorial bricks are placed
to honor the living and the dead. Proceeds are used for upkeep
and restoration of the cemetery.
The cemetery
is the resting place for 638 Smyrnans. 238 graves are marked
with headstones. Between October and December, 1999 TRC Garrow
Associates conducted an archaeological survey. Rod probing
was used to determine the location of the graves. Lines were
drawn from north to south and then probed from east to west
approximately every six inches to determine the exact location
and outline of the graves. Ten inch spikes were placed in
the four corners of each grave and the graves were then outlined
with pink tape. 395 previously unknown graves were found.
They were classified as adult, child and baby.
The Smyrna
Memorial Cemetery Association has since placed numbered marble
headstones on the unnamed graves and marked them unknown adult,
unknown child and unknown baby.
A map
of identified graves with headstone locations and a 27-page
cemetery guide with information on the known decedents is
available to the right. Since the archeological survey was
completed in 1999, the names of some of the unknown have been
identified. However, there burial locations are still unknown.
Volunteers
maintain the cemetery. Please contact us if you are interested
in becoming a volunteer.
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Photo Gallery
Click
here for Larger Map
Smyrna Memorial Cemetery Guide
(Adobe Reader PDF files, Circa 1985)
Special
Thanks to Robin Stephens Payne for re-typing and
updating the original 1985 document.
(Get Adobe Reader for free if it is not installed on
your computer. A new browser window will open.)
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