Covington County MsArchives Photo Tombstone.....Gieger, Family Plot 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Gerald Gieger giegerg@hotmail.com September 26, 2006, 9:02 am

Cemetery:           Gieger Cemetery #2
Name:               Family Plot Gieger
Photo can be seen at:
http://usgwarchives.net/ms/covington/photos/tombstones/gieger2/gieger4526gph.jpg
Image file size: 59.2 Kb

Gieger Family Plot

Gieger Cemetery on private land in Covington County, south of Collins off 
Highway 49. This cemetery was "lost" for many years, and is not shown on any 
maps of Covington County.  I located the Graves in August 2000.  Grandfather 
Jessie and Grandmother Tobitha were pioneers of Mississippi Territory, having 
migrated from Georgia in 1814-15 before statehood (1817).

En route to the Georgia Salzburger Society Festival at Ebenezer, Georgia, I decided to make a side trip to Collins, Mississippi and try 
to locate the graves of my great-great-great grandparents, Jessie and Tobitha (Martin) Gieger. A great deal has been written about 
these graves but no one has ever been able to come up with Photographs. 
In her book titled "Gieger," which was privately published about 1965-70, Edna (Gieger) Thornton tells of her husband coming home 
from the Memphis, Tennessee, Public Library with information about three Gieger graves on a creek bank, in the woods, off Highway 
49, south of Collins. She says they left that night, and drove 300 miles to Collins in hopes of finding them, Upon arrival in the area, 
they began inquiring...Soon they found an old gentleman, Mr. Pope, who took them to the site, down across his pasture, over a bridge, 
and up to a tall fence, separating his land from the property where the graves were located.... 
I had crossed the Texas-Louisiana border about 10:30PM on the night before and stopped for breakfast in Collins around 7:15AM, 
before the Courthouse offices would open. I saw some ladies whom I stereotyped as being interested in History and likely to be able to 
help me, so I went to their table and asked if they lived around there. They must have thought I was weird, but they laughed, and said 
No, we are passing thru on our way from Hattiesburg to Jackson...so much for my stereotyping... 
I decided to go to the Courthouse, and inside, I met the 911 Coordinator who gave me directions to several places and some maps. She 
was most helpful and cooperative, and knew almost everybody. Next I went to check-in at the only motel in town, and call Cousin 
Jessie Gieger, who along with his sons, are the only Gieger families still living in Collins...Jessie is a great-grandson of Lorenzo Dow 
Gieger, son of ggg-Uncle Zachariah. No one answered Cousin Jessie's telephone. Months before, I had talked with Jessie's wife, 
Glenda, who said he had all the tools that I needed, so bringing shovels or chain-saws or anything like that would not be necessary, but 
she said Jessie had never seen, nor knew anything about the site of the graves. I called to make appointments with a couple of ladies 
who had helped me before, a Mrs. Skehan, who is a coordinator for the Covington County Cemetery books, and a Mrs. Schimpf, who 
is the Mississippi Registrar for Colonial Dames. The 911 Coordinator had given me the name of a couple who lived near the location 
that I pointed out on her maps...No cemetery is shown on these maps, however... I looked up the phone number and called Mr. R.C. 
Sanford, who said "Come on down here and I will take you to the site" of Jessie and Tobitha's graves (our ggg-grandparents). Mr 
Sanford is the brother-in-law of Mr. Pope who has passed away. Now several people have been there in the past 35-40 years, but were 
unable to find the graves because they are in dense woods on a creek, with no upright markers, albeit slabs of concrete cover the 
graves. One individual, Karl West, did find them, because he copied the inscriptions, which I have compared to the photos. Karl is 
descended from Jessie and Tobitha?s daughter, Lucinda Gieger, who married Benjamin F. West. 
It was just like Cousin Edna says in her book. I followed Mr. Sanford in his pickup as he drove around the pasture and over a culvert 
to a fence-row. He said, "They are over there." I looked in those woods and thought, "Small wonder that no one could find them in 
there." He gave me a couple of pointers about the creek and some trees, but said "I haven't seen them myself in about 40 years!" 
I climbed the six-foot barbed and net-wire fence; remember this is "woods - REAL woods" with heavy undergrowth of briars and 
every vine you can imagine. I took a pair of long-handled cutters and a little spade like you would use to plant flowers in your garden, 
and started making my way into the under-growth. Very soon I was out of sight of Mr. Sanford, so he left me to hunt, going back to 
his house about 1000 yards away on direct path, except you can't go direct. He neglected to tell me to look out for the 'feral' Emus that 
might be in there, or the alligators. Anyway, I walked about 70 yards straight from the fence and the land began to slope off, down 
into the creek bed. I remembered that Cousin Edna's book said it had a little fence around it, but I saw no fence; in fact, I saw nothing 
but briars and vines and fallen branches and leaves. I turned back to the right and walked in that direction, following the creek bank. I 
say walked, but it was actually weaving in and out between trees, cutting my way as I moved along. Even though it was shaded, it was 
HOT, about 102 deg. One of the pointers which Mr. Sanford had given me was that I would be too far, if I got to a clearing which was 
the utility/petroleum pipeline right-of-way. There was a clearing ahead, so I decided to head back to the fence-row. Still no graves, not 
even that fence Cousin Edna spoke of. At this point, I had made a semi-circle and so I thought "I don?t want to get lost in here, so I 
will head back toward the place that I climbed over." The limbs from the trees are huge and they drape down so it is very difficult to 
see far ahead. Down on my hands and knees, I began looking for my vehicle, thru the underbrush, and I breathed a prayer, "LORD, 
Help me find those graves!" 
Now mind you, the soil is the color of concrete and the armadillos have burrowed everywhere, so what looks like Cement is frequently 
just dirt. Then, on my right hand, about ten more paces, I noticed something that looked like broken concrete, so I picked it up, hoping 
against hope, that the slabs, which Cousin Edna described, had not completely deteriorated. It was slag, but as I held it, I noticed 
another piece of concrete sticking out of the ground, right under my heel. I fell to my knees and quickly started scraping leaves and 
dirt with my hands. THERE IT WAS, "Tobitha Martin, wife of Jessie Gieger." I started scraping furiously, trying to find the others, 
jabbing my little hand spade down into the ground. About four inches of dirt and roots and leaves were on top of them, but I found 
two...I was elated, my heart up in my throat, realizing that I had actually found my ggg-grandparents who had been buried there for 
almost 130 years. Thank You, LORD. But I recognized that it was getting late and that I could not get them cleared without some 
more tools. Down on my knees, I looked around, and there, as Cousin Edna had said, was that barbed wire fence, on the ground and 
the 't' posts all bent and leaning over. Again on my hands and knees looking for the fence-row and the mulberry color of my car, I saw 
it, about 60 yards away at about 30 degrees from the fence...almost a straight line. 
I weaved back to the fence, climbed over and hurried to Mr. Sanford's house, telling him that I had to go buy a shovel and a broom and 
some chalk so I could make photos the next morning. After a little chat and some water to drink, Mrs. Sanford said the third grave was 
in a different line, and not side-by-side as we had thought. I told them I would be back in the morning. 
When I got to the Motel, Cousin Jessie had called and said he would be at the Hotel restaurant at 8:00AM. Collins is a little town, so I 
went to three different stores before finding any chalk. That night, I was so excited that I could hardly get to sleep. "Thank you LORD 
for answering my half-hearted prayer..." 
After breakfast, we stopped by the local auto supply and bought some florescent Orange spray paint. In the pickup was the shovel and 
broom that we would need and I brought a gallon of water to wash them off, if necessary. We went out to the Sanford's place, but no-
one was home, so we let ourselves in to the pasture, and drove down to where I had climbed over, the day before. Cousin Jessie had a 
long handled cutter that was sort of a hook. We spread out and started looking, then after about ten minutes, we spotted the site. 
Well, to conclude this story, Cousin Jessie and I cleaned off the grave covers. We even found the third one, "Martha Dikes, wife of 
Benjamin Dikes." She is Cousin Jessie's other ggg-grandmother. I chalked and photographed them, and have the proof of their 
existence. Oh, by the way - We painted the trees with the florescent orange paint on the way out, so that anyone else who is looking 
will find them, at least for a few years. 

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