Day-cation Adventure 3

After yesterday’s “day-cation” adventure with the bicycle, I have been exhausted. Believe it or not, my forearms are what really hurt! For this reason, I kept today’s “day-cation” short.

I went looking for graves again. According to one of my cousins, my great-grandparents are buried in Pleasant Home Cemetery, which is located on Ridge Road before the Forest Home turn-off. The cemetery is hard to find because no sign exists, plus you cannot see it from the main highway. The only thing you can see is a road that is blocked by a gate. Fortunately, one can walk on either side of the gate to the old church, which has been vandalized by some people who have terrible grammar skills (no big surprise, right?).

I found the graves of Archie and Stella Seale Boutwell, who was the sister of my great-grandmother Stella Seale Boutwell. I haven’t confirmed this, but I believe Archie was the brother of Stella’s husband David “Chap” Boutwell. The relationships appear to be that of two sisters marrying two brothers. Anyhow, Stella and Chap’s graves are not marked. I’m fairly certain which ones are theirs, but I cannot be 100% sure, of course.

Next, I went back out County Road 38 to where it turns into Old Federal Road in Monroe County. The road turns into a bumpy, winding dirt road that is difficult to traverse. Happily, I located Middleton Cemetery, which is where Elizabeth Stroud is buried. Elizabeth was attacked by Creek Indians during the Ogley massacre, which happened a week before the Butler Massacre in which Captain William Butler (for whom my home county is named) was killed. Elizabeth and two children survived the attack, but she died en route from Fort Bibb to Claiborne, where she was being transported for medical attention. Apparently her husband Eli Stroud was not present during the attack because he remarried a second Elizabeth, who is buried next to the first one oddly enough. Where Eli is buried is not something I know.

On the way to Middleton Cemetery, I stopped and took a picture of the Holley’s Store historical sign. It may have been the first mercantile business in the area.