OCONEE COUNTY, GA - CEMETERIES - Joe Radd Cemetery Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: LOSteen@aol.com Lisa O'Steen Table of Contents page: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/oconee.htm Georgia Table of Contents: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm JOE RADD CEMETERY It is very briefly mentioned in The History of Oconee County, Georgia (Sommer 1993), and Cemetery Records of Oconee County, Georgia (Clarke-Oconee Genealogical Society 1994:319). I could only relocate three of the four marked graves mentioned in the cemetery records. These were: "Hager Griffith Born Nov. 14, 1846 Died Mar. 24, 1909 Aged 63 years A Member of Mt. Zion Church 20 Years" "Sallie, Wife of Jesse Smith May 13, 1889 May 23, 1910 She believed and sleeps in Jesus" Griffith and Smith have inscribed grave stones. "Mrs. Mollie Holbrooks Died May 1st, 1948 Mutual Funeral Home Athens, Georgia" Mollie Holbrooks has a small funeral home marker at the foot of the grave: Mutual Funeral Home is apparently no longer in business, but could be tracked through the city directories. (no tombstone found) Merriweather, Minnie Mae ? - 1940 A fourth grave that apparently also had only a funeral home marker is that of Minnie Mae Merriweather (spelling?), who died in the 1940s also. Her information is in the cemetery records book, but I could not relocate this marker. Sue Preston Lutz, an 85 year old women that grew up in the area, also has more information, and I am trying to track down a manuscript that whe wrote on the Tappan Spur/US Highway 441 area. She said that the cemetery was located on what was the Thrasher Plantation. The white members of this family, and the Overbys and Middlebrooks families, are buried about a mile east of Joe Radd Cemetery on Tappan Spur Road--Cemetery named Thrasher-Whitlow Cemetery. I have not visited there yet. Mrs. Lutz said there was not a church by the Radd Cemetery, but there must have been one nearby at some time. Perhaps it had moved or burned down or something prior to Mrs. Lutz's years there. The Radd Cemetery appears to represent the black cemetery of this little crossroads community that may have begun as a plantation complex. It is very possible that many of the unmarked graves (80- 100) may represent slaves or descendants of slaves on the Thrasher Plantation. Hager Griffith would have been a teenager during the Civil War. The cemetery does not appear to have been used since the 1940s, and Mrs. Holbrooks and Mrs. Merriweather may be the last interments. Lisa O'Steen, RPA Archaeologist/Zooarchaeologist New South Associates 1241 Oakwood Drive Watkinsville, GA 30677-3139 706.769.4475 losteen@aol.com