UPDATE: I had initally written that Virginia Wood and Mary Ann Wood married in South Carolina, however this was incorrect and I tried to correct the information on Ancestry. Both married in Meriwether County, Georgia.
Getting to Mullins Cemetery in Meriwether County, Georgia has been an interesting feat. I initially contacted the Millers, who had posted some information about the cemetery online, back in October. So many life events were occurring at the time that I decided to wait until the end of November to attempt meeting them to see the cemetery. We first decided to go on Tuesday, November 29, but it rained and we couldn’t go. This is because the road that the cemetery is on is dirt, not much gravel, and gets very muddy and slick when it rains. We then planned on going the following Tuesday, December 6, but couldn’t because it rained…again. What are the chances that it’s sunny every day except Tuesdays? So we planned the trip for the following Monday, December 12 (yesterday). It rained…again. Seriously, it has been sunny since last Tuesday, but it rained yesterday.
We went anyway.
My mom and I met the Millers in Warm Springs, Meriwether County, Georgia and we followed them out to the cemetery. The road was soft in spots, and slick, but we went slow and managed not to get stuck. We had been told that if we didn’t know what to look for we’d miss it, and they were right! The trees are thick around the cemetery and there are deer stands all over the place. It was pretty creepy, actually.
So, the following are the photos I took (and there are a lot of them so just keep scrolling for more information)!
(note: getting a good shot of the cemetery proved to be difficult for me with my camera, so all photos were taken with my cell phone. editing was done on each photo to resize and make them easier to see, hence the differences in color and tone per photo.)
Ann McQueen is my 4th great-aunt. She is the sister of my 4th great-grandfather Peter McQueen. Ann is the first wife of Stephen Wood, though I do not know when or where they married since I have yet to find the marriage record. The top of the headstone has her married name WOOD. The front of her headstone reads:
ANN McQUEEN
WOOD
SEPT. 22, 1793
NOV. 10, 1834
The footstone has her initials A.M.W.
Stephen W Wood was married first to Ann McQueen, second to Ann C McGill (though Ann C McGill doesn’t appear to be buried in this cemetery). The top of his headstone has his last name WOOD. The front of his headstone reads:
STEPHEN W.
WOOD
JAN. 7, 1792
JUNE 15, 1862
His footstone has his initials S.W.W.
I can’t find any information for George W Wood, though I suspect he may be a child of Stephen W Wood and Ann McQueen. His headstone reads:
GEO. W. WOOD
1828-1863
Mortally wounded at the
battle of Gettysburg.
William H Wood is another person I can’t find any information on. He also might be a son of Stephen W Wood and Ann McQueen. The top of his headstone has his last name WOOD. The front of his headstone reads:
WILLIAM H.
WOOD
DEC. 27, 1826
APR. 16, 1868
His footstone has his initials W.H.W.
Virginia Wood is the daughter of Stephen W Wood and Ann McQueen. Virginia married David Hill Mullins on May 7, 1853 in South Carolina. Of course, the record I found for the marriage doesn’t list where in South Carolina, getting me no closer to finding the parents of Ann McQueen. The top of her headstone has her married name MULLINS. The front of her headstone reads:
VIRGINIA WOOD
MULLINS
JULY 31, 1833
JAN. 29, 1919
Her footstone has her initials V.W.M.
David Hill Mullins is the husband of Virginia Wood. Together they had 5 children. I took several photos of his headstone to try to show as much detail as possible. The top of his headstone has a design, as does the bottom beneath the inscription. The front of his headstone reads:
DAVID H. MULLINS
DEC. 9, 1821
FEB. 4, 1880
The very bottom of the headstone has his last name MULLINS. His footstone has his initials D.H.M.
Patrick Henry Mullins was the husband of Mary Ann Wood (Mary Ann Wood is the daughter of Stephen W Wood and Ann McQueen and the niece whom Peter McQueen left everything to in his will). They married on March 30, 1853 in South Carolina, though I can’t see where in South Carolina on their record, either. Patrick Henry Mullins was a tobacconist. He died of a brain inflammation in Randolph County, Alabama. I’m not sure if his body was sent back over the state lines to Meriwether County, Georgia or if this is just a memorial for him. The front of his memorial reads:
In memory of
PATRICK H. MULLINS
BORN
In Henry Co. Va.
July 12, 1824
DIED
March 8, 1860
The back of his memorial reads:
Sleep brother dear, and take your rest;
God called you home, He thought it best;
‘Twas hard, indeed, to part with thee,
But Christ’s strong arm supported me.
William Mullins is the son of David Hill Mullins and Virginia Wood. I’m not sure how the top of his headstone ended up laying across his grave, but I am very eager to see it set right again. The top of the headstone is carved with a cross and design of what I think are oak leaves and ivy leaves. I don’t know if anything is on the back of the monument, but the front reads:
In
Memory of
WILLIAM
MULLINS
Born
June 13, 1865
Died
Feb. 11, 1904
David Winston Mullins is also the son of David Hill Mullins and Virginia Wood. If I researched him correctly then he spent at least 39 years at the Georgia State Sanitarium in Milledgeville, Baldwin County, Georgia. He is listed on the census as an inmate there in 1900, 1910, 1920 and 1930. His death certificate in 1939 was issued at the hospital. I’m waiting on a return call from the hospital (now Central State Hospital) for more information. There is nothing on top of the headstone and there is no footstone. The front of his headstone reads:
DAVID WINSTON
MULLINS
OCT. 13, 1867
SEPT. 20, 1939
There is a crypt (crypt? is that what these are considered? I don’t know…) that is broken on the top and one end is leaning. I looked inside to make sure a body wasn’t just laying there and to make sure it hadn’t been dug up. It didn’t look like it, just sunken on one side. I look forward to this having repairs, too.
There are two rock mounds kind of in the middle of the cemetery with a walkway of sort in between them. Whether these, too, are graves or if they are just piles of rocks from when the graves were dug is currently unknown. I am hoping to receive a call back from the Meriwether County, Georgia Courthouse with more information.
The Millers mentioned that sometime soon they plan on taking a week to go down and clean the cemetery up, make repairs to the fence and fence posts (that are damaged terribly), reset headstones, repair the crypt and pretty much try to show the respect that has been severely lacking. I plan on helping when it’s time. Seeing this was really sad.
I just road down Mullins Cemetary Road with my mother and you are correct, if you don’t know where it is, you probably won’t find it. It was raining. We saw the hunting blinds but didn’t see the Cemetary. Maybe we’ll try on a prettier day.