White-Foster Family Cemetery, Henry County, GA

WHITE-FOSTER FAMILY CEMETERY, Henry County, GA


Surveyed July 7, 1991			GPS Location: None

Compiled & submitted by:
Thomas R. McConnell
trmcconnell@bellsouth.net

Copyright. All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
				
Introduction:

This cemetery was for nearly 100 years located in Land Lot 119 of the 6th District of Henry County, Georgia.  
The cemetery was located on high ground overlooking the present western side of Lake Erma.  In 2004 there 
was, unfortunately, very little left of this family cemetery so, to facilitate development of the property 
and with the permission of the descendents of those who lay in the cemetery, it was moved to Eastlawn Memorial 
Gardens, a public cemetery where the remains and the stone monuments still intact were given a prominent place 
in the Gardens.  Before it was relocated, and currently, this was and is an inactive cemetery within Eastlawn.  
A brief history of the family cemetery follows.

"Anderson White was the first, non-Indian owner of the property on which this cemetery lies.  In the lottery 
of 1821, while living with his family in Elbert County, he drew Land Lot 119, 6th District.  Shortly thereafter, 
in 1822, his daughter, Nancy White, married James M. Foster in Elbert County.  Before 1826, Anderson White, 
his wife, Margery, Nancy and James, and Anderson's son, Abda, all came to Henry County.  Anderson White died 
in 1826, but the property remained in the hands of his descendants until about 1955. 

Mrs. Carrie Pritchett Exum (b: 1898, d: 1995), who lived on the property as a young girl, stated that, as a 
child, she remembered there being a number of monuments in the cemetery.  She also stated that the last burial 
in this cemetery was in 1914.  A certain Foster family was visiting from Texas and a small child died while in 
this area.  Mrs. Exum remembered the family traveling through her yard with the small casket in a horse-drawn 
buggy.

Only five graves are marked with purchased markers, all with similar patterns, and four are the children of 
Nicholas Terrell Foster (a son of Nancy White) as determined by census records (one did not live through a 
census year).  Other graves are well marked with field rock, most head and foot.  Some of the field rocks 
appear to have faint outlines of a hand-carved cross.  It is difficult to determine whether these are actual 
carvings or weathered lines in the rocks.  Among the uninscribed graves marked only with field rocks are:

	12 Infant graves	7 Youth graves
	8 Adult graves	1 Adult grave with field rock inscribed "EPF"
	
The definitions of Infant, Youth and Adult listed above are the judgment of the observer based on the distance 
between head and foot stones.  This surveyor feels nearly certain that Anderson White and a number of his 
descendants are buried here.

There is one block of smooth finished granite, 18" x 18" x 12" high which appeared to have been the base of 
an obelisk-shaped monument.  The granite showed a weathered outline of what may have been a 12" x 12" obelisk base."

Alphabetical Index:

Surname	Given Name	Birth Date	Death Date	Notes

Foster	James R.	02/16/1845	03/06/1872	s/o Nicholas Terrell Foster
Foster	Sarah F.	08/03/1867	07/06/1868	d/o Nicholas Terrell Foster
Foster	Thomas E.	11/30/1858	07/12/1872	s/o Nicholas Terrell Foster
Foster	William M.	10/17/1849	11/01/1867	s/o Nicholas Terrell Foster

Knight	Erin T.		07/13/1857	04/21/1858	s/o Granville and Eliza Foster Knight