Thoughts From Ferabrew Cemetery

 It was great to finally be out on a cool summer day with a hiking group on a trek into the North Georgia Mountains. Our guide mentioned that we'd be walking through part of a national forest for a while then heading to see two different waterfalls (which was the reason I signed up for this hike in the first place).

The four mile hike on an unpaved, forest service road lead us to Ferabrew Cemetery. It also lead us back in time and left me with a head swirling with questions. After reading the brief history provided on the sign, I was anxious to see this old cemetery.

US Forest Service sign giving a brief history of the cemetery

I was surprised to see that it was a small, abandoned, overgrown cemetery, filled with a number of large rocks scattered around the cleaning. In the center of the approximately 30 x 20 foot area was a large stone box, apparently the burial place of Alias Ferabrew, the lid of which seemed simply placed (rather than adhered) onto the box. The inscription on the lid was virtually impossible to read. You can see where the first hikers in had tried to clear off the leaves to make it easier to read.

The only stone crypt we saw, reportedly that for Alias Ferabrew

Inscription on the lid of the crypt

    

Near by were two marble or granite markers, definitely more contemporary than the stone box, indicating that Mahula Brown Brady and James Dean Brady were also buried there.

As I walked through the rest of the area I kept seeing more rocks, various sizes, different shapes, located here and there in the cleaning with no names, dates, or even apparent intended order to their arrangement. For whom were these the markers of their final resting place?

The next day as I was looking at my pictures, I found myself wanting to learn more about the Bradys. My first step was to set up a family tree for Mahulda Brown Brady in Family Tree Maker. In a short time, census records for 1850-1900 provided me with information that, just as I thought, Mahulda Brown Brady and James Dean Brady were husband and wife as well as parents of at least 10 children. From their marriage in 1841 (according to the 1900 census) the family seemed to have resided in this same section of Habersham (now Stephens) County in northeast Georgia. The same surnames of other families also kept appearing in those census records. It all suggested a small, stable farming community that had developed in what had formerly been Cherokee Indian tribal land. 

Probate records also provided some additional information about Mahulda and James. Although his marker indicated that James died in 1902, probate records for (then) Hambersham County indicated that James had died in March of 1901.(1) A son, James Elias Brady was appointed guardian for Mahulda until her death in 1902. The Brady estate was finally settled in 1905 following the last sale of property and distribution of funds to the heirs.

The markers for Mahulda and James seemed new, not a hundred plus years old. After a little more research, I now think they had been placed there in the past 20 years. According to information posted on USGenWeb a cemetery survey done in 2004 indicated that "a total of 34 graves were counted with 33 being marked with field stones, no inscriptions, and 1 marked with soap stone slabs stacked to form a vault with inscriptions." This may suggest that someone, perhaps family members, placed the markers for Mahulda and James after this 2004 cemetery survey.

There were also some photos of the cemetery on the blog "Faded Footprints, the Lake Russell Wildlike Management Area". A group had apparently cleaned the cemetery area back in 2012, noting at that time that there were 30 graves and four stone crypts. On our hike in 2021, we only saw the one large crypt which, according to the forest service sign, was Alias Ferabrew's burial site.

Oh, yes, later in the day, we stopped at that 180 foot waterfall. I marveled at its beauty, took some pictures, and enjoyed the peace of that area. In addition I'll always have another memory from that hike, the memory of that abandoned cemetery and the glimpse into past lives that it stimulated.

Final thoughts:

• There was no information on either Find A Grave or Billion Graves for Ferabrew / Ferabre Cemetery so I added the cemetery and my photos of the markers for Mahulda Brown Brady and James Dean Brady onto Find A Grave. Perhaps someday this might help one of their descendants.
• I keep wondering who the first settlers were who moved onto this land, most likely having been some of the "fortunate drawers" in one of the Georgia Land Lotteries.
• Today so much of this area is part of a national forest. Where are all the descendants of those early families today?
• "Rabbit Hole Genealogy", my term for suddenly chasing a name or unconnected tidbit of information, can sometimes be an interesting learning experience. Now I wonder if the Brady I stumbled across in the Cherokee Land Lottery of 1837, the one who draw a lot for land in Habersham County, was kin to James Dean Brady?

1.  Georgia, Wills and Probate Records, 1742-1992 [database on-line], Habersham, Estate Case Files, 1800-1915, Brady, J D-Crow, Ervin and Nettie; folder of J D Brady, accessed on www.Ancestry.com.