Old Beulah Cemetery

     Rev. Alexander Travis, a relative of infamous Alamo freedom fighter William Barrett Travis, founded Beulah Baptist Church in 1818. Although the church has long since disappeared, having been torn down in 1904 and moved out of the woods to a less remote location, the Old Beulah Cemetery remains. Located east of Evergreen, the cemetery rests on property known today as the Jay Villa Plantation.
     Many graves in the Old Beulah Cemetery are unmarked, but at least thirty-eight have headstones. One headstone bears the year 1804, and several date back to before the Civil War. Surrounding most of the graves are ornamental cast-iron fences, some of which came from Philadelphia ironworks owned by Robert Wood.
     Trailing down the sides of two tall marble monuments are intricately carved baskets of roses and other flowers. The Carrara marble, imported from Italy, showcases the stonecutter’s extraordinary skill and eye for minute detail. A closer look reveals that the talented carver even included fuzz upon the petals of the lilies of the valley.      Although many of the tombstones aren’t as elaborate as those imported from Italy, the box tombs, table monuments, and shafts are all evidence that the pioneers resting here had fairly prosperous families. Some of the monuments were furnished by J. Turner, a monument maker in Mobile.      One interesting monument in Old Beulah Cemetery marks the grave of Ezra Plumb. The marker was placed upon his grave by the “Friends of the Southland.” Plumb was an architect from Connecticut who constructed most of the fine early homes in Conecuh and Escambia Counties. He was noted for building homes with verandas and center breezeways commonly known as dog trots.

     A sad story surrounds the solitary grave that lies north to south, instead of the customary east to west. It is the story of a young lady who was engaged to marry Gideon B. Frierson. After learning of a yellow fever outbreak in Pensacola, Florida, Gideon slipped through the quarantine. Finally reach his fiancée, he persuaded her to return with him to Conecuh County. She agreed, and Gideon along with his future bride, slipped back through the quarantine. Unaware that she had already become infected, she died a few days after arriving at Gideon’s home near Beulah Church. Since no one knew she had secretly traveled there from Pensacola, her body was prepared for burial and the coffin carried to Old Beulah Cemetery, where she was buried at night. Today no one knows the young lady’s name and the headstone marking her grave is absent.

     Beautiful poetic epitaphs are inscribed on several of the tombstones found in Old Beaulah Cemetery. Two inscriptions are romantic goodbyes from husbands to cherished wives. Capt. Wilson Ashley wrote to wife, Mary Ann: “Farewell, dear wife, a short farewell, that we may meet again above, and rove where angels love to swell, where trees bear the fruits of love.” Henry Hunter remembered wife Elizabeth with a touching phrase: “We passed together our life on Earth, may we be together in eternity.”
     In the center of the cemetery, where Old Beulah Church once was, a tall, pillar-shaped monument marks the final resting place of Rev. Alexander Travis. Buried in 1852, his epitaph covers all four side of the gravestone. The location of the monument is exactly where he stood a century and a half ago, delivering powerful sermons from the pulpit. It almost seems the Reverend is still looking our over his congregation, even after his death.


Copeid from: Booth, Donna J. Alabama Cemeteries : a Guide to Their Stories in Stone. Birmingham, Ala. Crane Hill Publishers, 1999. pp 109-111