Monday, May 9, 2016

2010 & 2015 Coffee Cemetery then and now

September 8, 2010 

I saw a tree full of these.
Road to the Cemetery 
Coffee Cemetery could not be seen from the road. There was a historical marker providing information about the Cemetery.
We pulled into someone's driveway and parked in the area where one could park to enter the road leading to the Cemetery. There was a gate that I had to go through. Then down this long dirt road to the Cemetery.
The Cemetery was well kept, but there was no way to get inside the wall, so I leaned over it to take pictures of the graves. 
Many of Coffee's family members are buried in this Cemetery.
Just a few feet away are several unmarked slave graves

Information about the Coffee family:
General John R. Coffee son of Captain Joshua and Elizabeth (Graves) Coffee married Mary Donelson, on October 3 1809 in Davidson Co., TN. There were ten known children born of this union: Mary (Hutchings), John Donelson, Elizabeth, Andrew Jackson, Rachel Jackson (Dyas), Alexander Donelson, Catherine Harriet, Emily, William Donelson, and Joshua Coffee.
General John R. Coffee fought in the War of 1812 under the command of Andrew Jackson. He raised the 2nd Regiment of Volunteer Mounted Riflemen, which was made up of primarily Tennessee militiamen and a few Alabamians. On September 4, 1814, he was involved in the Andrew Jackson-Benton Brothers duel. He married Mary Donelson, daughter of John and Mary (Purnell) Donelson, and a relative of Andrew Jackson's wife, Rachel Donelson Robards Jackson. His father, Captain Joshua Coff, is believed to have served in the Revolutionary War.

He was a merchant, a partner in land speculation with Andrew Jackson, and worked as a surveyor in Florence, Lauderdale Co., AL. Surveying the boundary line between Alabama and Mississippi. www.findagrave.com


Coffee Cemetery 
Coffee Cemetery 

I went back to the Cemetery Site on April 10, 2015.
I no longer had to walk through the woods to the Cemetery. 
There was a sidewall Cemetery. The Cemetery could be seen from the road, which was once hidden in the woods. 
I could not get to the Cemetery due to construction. 
Walmart bought the land, and before they would let Walmart build a store, the area had to be surveyed for slave graves, and many grave sites were found. That area was set aside, and Wal-Mart built its store, but not on any grave sites.


Coffee Cemetery 2015
Every orange flag represents a slave grave.

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