Baillie Plantation Cemetery

Located on Hwy. 17 N in Eulonia, McIntosh Co., Georgia, this small family cemetery sits in the middle of a cow pasture on private property.  The cemetery itself has been destroyed over time by nature, livestock, and many other factors.  I visited this cemetery on Tuesday, 10 April 2007, with descendants Brailsford Troup Nightingale, Jr. and William Boston McKinnon, Jr., in hopes of forming a plan of attack on saving the cemetery.

Today, descendants would like to preserve this cemetery for future generations, however, the work will be costly and time consuming.  The biggest concern right now, is getting the cemetery fenced off from the livestock, to keep them from damaging the cemetery further, and from hurting themselves should a grave collapse from the weight of a cow standing on it.

The LAHS has recorded 16 burials within the cemetery, 11 graves are clearly marked with tombstones, but the 5 others are unmarked, and it is unknown by me how the group knows that there are five more burials.  Another question, is Dr. James McGillivray Troup really interred here?  His estate was filed in Glynn County, the will leaving much to the imagination, the estate inventory telling a fuller story.  But where was Dr. Troup buried?  He does not have a tombstone in Baillie Cemetery, but his name and dates are inscribed upon a monument with Mrs. Camilla (Brailsford) Troup and Mrs. Maria (Heyward) Brailsford, suggesting they are not buried here either, only memorialized.

And yes folks, that is a cow standing on a tombstone in the center of the photo to the right.  Part of the preservations plan, and the biggest part, is making sure the cemetery can be protected from these creatures, whose only guilt is wanting to eat plants.  In talking with the current land owner, we were told that when his grandmother bought the land over 20 years ago, the cemetery wasn't even visible, it was completely surrounded by woods, and you would have been lucky to find it at all.

Transcribed by Amy Hedrick 10 April 2007.