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| I saw a tree full of these |
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| Road to the cemetery |
We pulled into someone's driveway and pulled up to 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 the wall 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 3 Oct 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 4 Sep 1814, he was involved in the Andrew Jackson - Benton Brothers duel. He married Mary Donelson daughter of John and Mary (Purnell) Donelson and relative of Andrew Jackson's wife Rachel Donelson Robards Jackson. His father Captain Joshua Coffee 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
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| Coffee Cemetery |
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| Coffee Cemetery |
I went back to the Cemetery Site on April 10, 2015.
I no longer had to walk through the woods to get to the cemetery.
There was a sidewalk near the cemetery and the cemetery could be seen from the road, which was once hidden in the woods.
I could not get very close to the cemetery because of the construction.
Walmart bought the land next to the cemetery and before they would let Wal-mart could build a store, the area had to be surveyed for slave graves and many grave sites were found. That area was set aside and Walmart built its store but not on top of any grave sites.
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| Coffee Cemetery 2015 |
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| Every orange flag represents a slave grave |
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