Slaveowners and slaves, Confederate and Union soldiers rest together in Gore-Patterson Cemetery
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Most of the people in Gore-Patterson Cemetery have been at rest for more than 100 years. Today, their gravesites are visible and accessible because a few of their descendants refused to rest.
The rededication ceremony for Gore-Patterson Cemetery was described as “the final step of a journey of a million miles” at the gathering, which was moved to the old Star Reach Center because of rain on this Saturday morning.
The recent history of how the land was eventually acquired and deeded to the Jones County Board of Supervisors to be maintained wasn’t as important to attendees as the pre- and post-Civil War history that’s preserved along the hill at the end of a quarter-mile grassy path off Magnolia Road, not far from Highway 84 East.
The headstones — many fading, more adorned with moss than with flowers — sprout among the pines and hardwoods. They tell the story of a community where people lived “long before they settled in Laurel and Ellisville,” said Jerry Keahey, who drove the station wagon and snapped photos of the “Tougaloo Nine” — black students who staged a sit-in at that Jackson college’s library in an effort to integrate it in 1961.
“It was once a huge plantation,” he said of the site of the cemetery. “I understand Mr. Gore was a good man even though he was a slave owner. Slaves, slavemasters, Union soldiers and Confederate soldiers are all buried there.”
A daughter of his grandparents Jerry and Charlott Keahey, Elvira, died on March 13, 1901, just before her 14th birthday. She’s among many in their teens and early 20s whose markers show that they passed away around the turn of the century. Tabitha Keahey and Sarah Crosby both died at 20, in 1902 and 1900, respectively. Mary Nelson died in November 1903, at 16, and Henrietta Henry died in 1902, just after her 27th birthday. Arthur Williams passed away on Sept. 7, 1900, at 28, and another marker that is partially illegible shows “Malissy,” maybe, dying in 1902 at age 23.
Quite a few died even younger, which wasn’t unusual in bygone eras. “Our Darling Baby” reads the headstone of Morgan Edward Polk, May 6-May 8, 1921. Sadie Hearn, “Infant of Mr. and Mrs. W.H. Hearn,” died on June 17, 1920. Just up the hill is Zerah Touchstone, Feb. 20, 1904-Nov. 28, 1905.
Among those are the headstones of Privates Rutillis R. Loper (Nov. 4, 1832-March 19, 1886) and James R. Trest (Nov. 25, 1845-Jan. 21, 1888) of the Confederate States of America. Thomas A. Stewart has the earliest burial date that can be read on a marker — Aug. 9, 1862, a little more than a year after the War Between the States broke out. He was 36. Annie C. Reeves has the earliest birth date, July 13, 1815. She died Aug. 29, 1902, at 87, greatly exceeding the average life expectancy of the era.
“This cemetery tells a lot of stories,” Roger Jones said. “Those 45- to 50-year-olds did a helluva lot more in their time than our 70- to 80-year-olds do now.”
John Jones — one of 16 children raised on the family farm of Ira and Geneva Jones — recalled the Jones-Ferguson family reunion in 2003, which was when the idea for cleaning up the cemetery was born.
“That’s when we decided to take on the project,” recalled Jones, who now lives in Tupelo. “We went there with kaiser blades, axes, chainsaws, then in the distance, we heard ‘pow!’ ... Maybe it was deer season. I don’t know.”
They didn’t stick around to ask questions after hearing the gunshots, Jones said with a chuckle. “We decided to go and try to find out who owns it.”
He learned that the land belonged to Steve Holifield, who was living in Midland, Texas at the time. Jones wrote letters and made calls trying to track him down. Years later, the two finally made contact and the family got permission to clean up the property.
The cemetery — and the efforts to restore it — could be held up as an example of Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream that “the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table,” Jones said. “We’re all coming together as one. We want to change the image of Mississippi. It’s time. There’s opportunity here.”
Honoring their family’s history — their mother, in particular, to fulfill a wish she made before her death — was the genesis of the cemetery cleanup and the company he started with his brothers, GenIra 16 Enterprises, LLC, a training company for civil rights, ethics and community development geared to the public and private sector based in Tupelo. The namesakes of the company “instilled in us a strong work ethic, the principle of self responsibility and to give back to the larger community,” according to its website.
That’s why GenIra is offering to pay for a granite marker for anyone whose relative is buried there but doesn’t have a headstone — to help others “remember their family legacy” and “restore the dignity associated with life and to encourage love for all people without regard to race, color or social status,” said John Jones, who retired as a USDA assistant state conservationist in Kentucky.
The brothers with GenIra — all of whom were educated at Alcorn State — worked at various state and federal agencies and universities across the South before forming their company.
“As native sons of Jones County, we appreciate the values and principles that were instilled in us by our widowed mom, our family, our church and our teachers,” he said.
The date of the rededication ceremony, Feb. 11, coincided with what used to be known as “Negro History Week,” which was celebrated at his old Mount Olive School, he said. That was always the second week of February in celebration of the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln (Feb. 12, 1809) and Frederick Douglass (Feb. 14, 1818), “before woke-ism and Critical Race Theory,” he added.
Lavon Brownlee noted that a “lot of work went on behind the scenes” to preserve the cemetery and make it accessible. He and other speakers singled out former Beat 3 Supervisor Barry Saul and current Supervisor Phil Dickerson for their efforts. A path was cleared and a stairway was built to help people reach the graveyard on the hill.
“I wanted to carry on what Supervisor Saul started,” Dickerson said. “We don’t want to lose history.”
That’s important for all, Gloria Dobbins said, calling the cemetery “a treasure” that everyone needs to see.
“This cemetery is a capsule of history,” Brownlee said. “The good, the bad, the not-so-good ... We can learn from it. Some of the people buried there were born into slavery. Some fought in the Civil War.
“History is not to be erased, it’s to be celebrated, to learn from. This legacy continues and will be a blessing to future generations, preserved for eternity. Their souls have gone on, but their remains rest there. That’s a blessing.”
John Jones talked about visiting downtown Laurel the previous day and seeing all of the tourists who were drawn to his home county by the hit HGTV show “Home Town.”
“I couldn’t even find a parking place,” he said, laughing.
“Ben and Erin aren’t the only ones with ideas, though. The Free State of Jones can set the model. This community can send people into the world to make a difference ... blacks and whites, working together. Do not become dismayed.”
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