Cemeteries: Swindle (Brown-Swindle) Cemetery, 1980, Winn Parish, LA
Submitted by Greggory E. Davies, 120 Ted Price Lane, Winnfield, LA 71483
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From: Mrs. Robert E. Mathews (Frances Ophelia Durham Mathews) January 1, 1980

Story of Swindle Graveyard

The Swindle graveyard was started in 1862.  A man named Swindle came to the
Sardis Community in 1858 and built a log cabin in front of Ivy Keyes on top of
the hill near the spring.  My Grandpa, James Durham, moved here about five
miles from Swindle's in 1860.  He was going to town one day and Swindle saw
him.  He watched for him to come back by and when he did, he met him and 
wanted him to drink coffee with him.  He went in and drank coffee and talked
to him for a while.  He had a post down and a wire on it and a bucket on the
wire that would go down to the spring and get a full bucket of water and come
back.  He told Grandpa he didn't have any people and he was alone and when he
died take him back of his cabin and bury him.  He took sick and died in 1862. 
Some of the men stayed with him while he was sick.  When he died they came and
cut the trees and bushes and cleaned off a place and dug his grave.  Grandpa
Durham, Uncle Jim Durham, Grandpa Melton, Bill Melton, Grandpa Bazar, Bill
Bazar, Grandpa Shumake, and Mr. Ben Allbright all came and put him away.  I
don't know who else came.  They read from the Bible, had prayer, and sung a
song.  They fenced in a graveyard and called it Swindle's graveyard.

In 1864 my Grandmother Durham died and they buried her in Swindle's graveyard.
In 1868 my mother's brother, Jimmy Martin was buried there.  My mother's first
husband, Joseph Shelton, was the first Shelton buried there in 1869.  Grandpa
Shelton was buried there in 1873.  My little brother and sister was buried
there in 1873.  The both died close together.  There were 11 Durham babies
buried there.  My Daddy had 2, Uncle Pink had 3, Uncle Joab had 2, Uncle Joel,
Uncle Him, Uncle John, and Uncle Billy all had 1 each.  The are all buried in
a row except one.

There weren't any funerals then, it was burials.  There weren't any
cemeteries, they were called graveyards and no caskets, it was coffins.  They
would take the lid off the box and put it down by the grave and read from the
Bible and have a prayer and sing a song.  They sang the same song every time.
It was: 'We are going, slowly going, one by one, we pass away.'

Uncle Jim Shelton conducted more burials than anyone.  He was a deacon and
always there.  I was four years old when I saw my first dead person.  It was
Grandpa Bazar.  I was standing close to the coffin and a fly was in the
coffin.  Two men were trying to get it out.  I was afraid they wouldn't get it
out and it would be in his face when they put the lid on.  They got it out.

I have seen two Mothers with their babies in their arms buried there.  They
are: Mrs. Lucy Barton Shelton and Mrs. Lizzie Ray Barton.  There was never
anyone by the name of Brown buried in the Swindle graveyard, unless Mr.
Swindle was a Brown.  Everyone thought he was running from the law.  He might
have been a Brown by birth, but he didn't live as a Brown, he died as a
Swindle and our forefathers name the graveyard Swindle.  Grandpa Durham died
on October 10, 1899.

It is still called Swindle graveyard.  Most folks call it the Upper Graveyard
now.  My father and mother and my grandparents on both sides are buried in the
same graveyard and in the same row.  My mother was the first person I ever saw
carried in the church house.  They took two benches and put one on each side
of the pulpit and put the casket on the benches.  It was 1917.

My mother, Martha Jane Martin Shelton Durham, and my Grandpa, James Durham,
told me all of this.

Mrs. Robert E. Mathews
(Frances Ophelia Durham Mathews)
January 18, 1980   

(My apologies for not recalling who gave me the above copy)