MACEDONIA PRIMITIVE CEMETERY, Clay County, Alabama ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/al/alfiles.htm ************************************************ This file is copyrighted and contributed by: Donna Carpenter < DCPHX16107@aol.com > This letter was copied from the Tuesday, May 2, 1911 Edition of the Primitive Baptist. THE PEACE* I have sat down to try to try to write a little for you all to read when I am gone. My maiden name was Sallie HARLEN. My father's name was Zachariah HARLEN, and my mother's name was Juda WILKINS. I was born in Georgia in Oglethorpe or Wilks, I can't say which. Was brought from there to Walton before I was five years old, and from there to Henry County before I was six. I lived there until I was grown. I was raised by a good widowed mother, my father being killed in the move from Wilks to Walton. I married a good man named WARREN CARPENTER in 11-11-1838 in my nineteenth year. In 1848 my dear husband and I joined the Primitive Baptist Church and were baptized by Elder Allen CLEVELAND, the second Sunday in February. It was a cold day, but to me it was the most pleasant day I ever saw. That fall after we joined the church at Lebanon we made our first move to from Henry County to Alabama. We just got over the line and put our letters in Bethlehem Church. We were in Alabama but the church was in Georgia. We only stayed there two years, when we moved here, in six miles of Macedonia in 1850. I only had the pleasure of living with my dear husbad eighteen years and two months. He left me with nine children - six girls and three boys. By the help of the good Lord I raised them all to be grown, and then they begin to die and leave me to mourn and I now have but four left. But, oh, how good the heavenly Father is. He has held me up. He never let me sink under. I am obliged to praise Him if He takes all I have, for He does all things well. He gives and he has the right to take when it pleases Him. I have my dear husband, three daughters, one grandchild and my mother in one graveyard; one daughter in another and one son in another. It seems like I am stayig here a long time. If I live until the first day of March I will be ninety-one years old. My offspring is large. I now have but four living children out of nine. Of my grandchildren there are fifty-five; great-grandchildren, 174; great-great grandchildren, twenty-two; making in all 260. Of this number there are, as near as I can count, thirty-six of them dead. My oldest child is in her seventy-second year and is still able to come from North Alabama to see me. My youngest is nearly fifty-five years old, and is the father of thirteen children. I beg the prayers of all Christian people, that when I have stayed my stay out here that I may be prepared to say, "Come, Welcome death, I will gladly go with thee." I know that within myself I do nothing. I hope my loving Jesus will be near that I may lean my head on His breast and breathe my life out sweetly there, and waft my soul to that home where there will be no sorrow nor sad farewells. Your sister in hope of a better world, Sallie Carpenter Ashland, Alabama P.S. I have been a member at Macedonia sixty-years this past January, and I sometimes fear that I have deceived those good people that I so much love and have permitted me to live with them all this time. I had a big family, nearly all of whom have passed away to that happy home, as I hope, and are at rest, and I hope to meet them some sweet day when we will all be the same. LOCATION: I have been told that the original church was established in 1843 two miles northwest of Lineville on Good Hope Rd. then moved closer to Ashland in 1887. The cemetary on the original cite is the location of Grandma Sallie, her husband, three daughters, one grandchild ad her mother's graves. T19 R8 Sec 35, on left of road 2 miles north on Oak Grove Rd from Intersection of hwy 9 and 49 in Lineville, AL. SURVEY: Survey 9 Nov 1984 by Marylee Bonnner Turner, Ruth Hom Hamlin CREDITS: Cemeteries of Clay Co. AL, Clay Co, AL Historical Society. Copyright 1987 by Clay Co.,AL Historical Society published by Family Tree. MACEDONIA PRIMITIVE BAPTIST CEMETARY CLAY CO., ALABAMA Juda Morgan 1796 1882 (Mathena) M. C. Carpenter 1-1-1844 8-27-1877 (Emaly Caroline) E.C. 5-30-1858 10-1-1868 (Sally Harlin) Sarah A. 3-1-1820 1-14-1914 James Warren Sr. 1-21-1813 1-4-1857 Elijah Thomas 4-27-1849 4-13-1855 Son of R.L. and Emily Mary Ann Carpenter Ponder 5-28-1841 2-2 Wife of Jasper E. Lucy M. 7-15-1867 8-13-1869 Daughter of J.E. and M. A Julia Garrett 4-25-1818 9-24-1848 Julia Ann Eliza Packer Rev. John C. Jordon 2-14-1784 7-16-1866 Primitive Baptist Preacher Five Unmarked Graves NOTE: Some of above innformation does not appear on markers but was furnished by people doing the recording of the cemetery. This is original cite of Macedonia Primitive Baptist Church, later moved to Olive Branch Community. ? I have been told that the original church was established in 1843 two miles northwest of Lineville on Good Hope Rd. then moved closer to Ashland in 1887. The cemetery on the original cite is the location of Great Grandma Sallie, her husband, three daughters, one grandchild and her mother's graves.