It is my understanding if a living member of the family cemetery brings suit against those paper companies they can make them restore these cemeteries. I have not checked the law lately. I believe this is a GA law. Please see if you can locate these families and get them to get a lawyer to take their case pro bono(sp?). I believe I remember reading on the Johnston Co NC list about suit being brought against someone who did something to a grave yard and had to pay for it. It was at least ten years ago. Johnston Co NC has a very active Historical Society. I know there was a case, I just do not remember the details. This is all I know about the legal end. The problem is that most people who are descendants live in other states and do not want to take the trouble and don't have the time to bring these cases to court and these greedy companies know this. I know the law says they must provide access to member to get to these cemeteries. Also most all of us put off anything that is not hitting us in the face at the moment. It has also been my observation that loggers are one of our worst enemies because they "snake out" their logs with no regard for old markers. It behooves us all to put chain link fences around old family cemeteries. One suggestion would be to get one person to take care of getting the fence and seeing that it is done and one person to collect donations from family members so that the responsibility is spread out. If we can ever get the ATTENTION of these companies, they might be more vigilant. Remember everyone except the owner of any company, and they are probably answerable to a board of directors, has a boss who is higher up than they are. This is one reason Historical Societies in every county are so important. Another problem is by the time one person even visits all of their ancestors grave yards, you come up with more cemeteries than you ever imagined. When we were primarily a farming nation, this was not a problem. But the industrial revolution changed all of that and now current migration patterns would be almost impossible to chart. Our grandchildren will move more than their parents, etc. In one of my families, the owner back in the early 1900's made a will leaving the family grave yard to the heirs of his father forever. There is another word for forever but I can't spell it. This deed is on record in that county courthouse. That land can never be sold. This would be a wise thing for everyone to search out and do somehow even at this late date. One problem arises when the cemetery was an old church cemetery and the church is no longer there--all kind of complications. I do not believe any of us can "go after" the government for backing up all that water on all our cemeteries-the time to have done that would have been before it happened. But I challenge you to "go after" those paper companies who did their destruction. If you locate your family cemetery, even the destroyed stones, be sure to document your finding and do a GPS reading for it and put it in your genealogy records. Betty in ga P. S. I do not know how to post to the message board. The URL please? Thanks. -----Original Message----- From: galincol-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:galincol-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Chris & Frances Johnson Sent: Tuesday, April 06, 2010 1:35 PM To: galincol@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [GALINCOL] dams on the savannah river and the graves it covered Karen, I, too, have relatives that lived in the Pine Grove community, but I was told by someone that ran I store in that area (Sims) that my ancestors' family cemetery property was bought by a "paper company" and all of the markers were destroyed, what a shame. My Pullen ancestors who lived on Pistol Creek in Wilkes County also had a family cemetery that I visited this year that is owned by a paper company and they planted pines throughout the cemetery and all of the markers were knocked over and broken with the exception of one! The Pullen families lived in Wilkes and Lincoln. Frances -----Original Message----- From: galincol-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:galincol-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Karen Querna Sent: Monday, April 05, 2010 11:47 PM To: galincol@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [GALINCOL] dams on the savannah river and the graves it covered I think you are right on about graves not being moved completely. I am have Cunningham's that I beleive were buried and then flooded. They should of been at Pine Grove Methodist Cemetery there and they are not. karenq On Mon, Apr 5, 2010 at 6:41 PM, Betty Bivins <halbet@hughes.net> wrote: > Barbara, > You are partially correct. They built a plant called Vogtle Nuclear Power > Plant in Burke Co near Waynesboro GA below Lincoln Co and Augusta. I know > nothing about a dam there. You can google it and find out some interesting > information. They are currently digging out to put in a new part. > > There are several dams across the Savannah River. The Richard B > Russell(long-term senator from GA) Dam is close to Elberton GA which is > north of Lincoln Co. There is one at Clark Hill. When they built those > dams, > it is my understanding that the Corps of Engineers were to map every > cemetery and log the ones that were potentially to be covered with water. I > never heard of anything about moving any. No one would have had that much > money. They only got so far and the water backed up faster than it was > predicted. All of that history is lost to us forever. There was a lot of > rain that year. At least that was their EXCUSE! Don't ask me which year, I > can't remember. > > The cemeteries that they did log are supposed to be housed in the public > library at Hartwell, GA (I do not know if printed or microfilm). When we > went there several years ago to search them, they were renovating the > library and we were unable to do our searching. I still have plans to go > back there again. It is NOT a complete list. If their log has been > published > I am unaware of it. I am surprised that Ancestry has not done one. > > The only graves they moved, of which I am aware, are the graves of Elijah > Clark and his family, the Revolutionary War hero. They moved them to Elijah > Clark state park located on the Savannah River in Lincoln Co. GA across > from > McCormick, SC. (John Dooly, the Revolution hero who was murdered in his > cabin by the Tories is here also but we have never walked up to that site.) > They have a great state park there. There is a reproduction of Elijah > Clark's cabin that is probably the best reproduction of a cabin that we > have > ever seen. They know so much about it from letters and papers of him and > his > wife that were kept. They measured the length from one chimney ruin to the > other on his farm, now under water, and built it from that. They just did a > good estimate on how large to build the kitchen that is not attached to the > house. > The cabin is manned by volunteer docents and is only open on weekends. > > If you enjoy Revolutionary War research you would enjoy studying the > revolution in this area of GA and SC. It was actually more like a local > area > civil war and very brutal. > > One of the dams created the J. Strom Thurmond(long time senator from SC) > Reservoir. There is much water in this area for recreational purposes. > There > are a number of state parks with boat ramps and some of them have cabins to > rent. > > And now that you have had your Georgia history lesson, I am going back to > my > email. > > I do not know how much publicity was given to the public about them backing > up that much water. We were not living here at the time. I do not live > close > to Lincoln Co. I feel sure most of my kin from Lincoln Co are blowing > bubbles as I type. If I had been I would probably been one of those hippies > who stood in front of the digging equipment and been hauled off to jail. I > find most people in this country have absolutely NO respect for nor see the > importance of old grave yards. > Betty in ga > > -----Original Message----- > From: galincol-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:galincol-bounces@rootsweb.com] > On Behalf Of Nononoall3@aol.com > Sent: Monday, April 05, 2010 7:56 PM > To: galincol@rootsweb.com > Subject: Re: [GALINCOL] agriculture question > > Hello, I am not Betty but Barbara. Years ago, perhaps 30 years, I was in a > library doing research on my Lincoln County ancestors. I found a few books > there that told of how there was going to be a nuclear plant or something > to that effect on the river near Augusta or maybe higher up near Lincoln > County. They stated that whole cemeteries had to be relocated prior to a > flooding of the area that was going to occur in connection with that plant > going > in. It is a very foggy memory but it gave me rise to expect that because I > could not find the graves of my people, they may have been in the move. > You might find it in a local library of either Lincoln or Wilkes Counties > in > Georgia and possibly McCormick County in S. Carolina. Barbara in Texas > If this is a Message Board gatewayed to the list, please reply to the > Message Board. The poster may not be a member of this list. > > Please remember that this is a FREE genealogy mailing list and postings of > any commercial nature are NOT permitted by RootsWeb Rules. > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > GALINCOL-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes > in the subject and the body of the message > > If this is a Message Board gatewayed to the list, please reply to the > Message Board. 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