Madison County MsArchives News.....Pages From An Old Scrap Book 1943
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Dorothy Winters dorothymwinters@charter.net August 25, 2008, 6:11 pm

Some Newspaper Based In Mississippi 1943
Pages From An Old Scrap Book
by Anabel Power

THE OLD SHARON CEMETERY
	One Sunday afternoon last autumn we drove with a party of friends to 
rural Sharon, the original county seat of Madison county, to see the beautiful 
old cemetery about which we had heard so often. Sharon is seven miles east of 
Canton, the present county seat. It was once a community of wealthy, cultured 
plantation owners whose homes and ancestral acres were the pride of that 
section before the Civil War, where slaves tended the homes, helped “raise” the 
children and made the cotton that was the chief source of the great wealth of 
that period. Their Sharon Male College and Female College boasted the best in 
education facilities that the country could provide.
	Now it is a small inland community with but a few of the descendants of 
the original families but those are typical of the traditions and culture of 
the old South and form a group of friendly neighbors with common interests. 
Their greatest common interest is the care of the old graveyard in the heart of 
the village where for more than a hundred years their forefathers have been 
buried. Visitors come from far and near to see this beauty spot in our 
southland.
	There was a stillness in the air that Sunday afternoon as we drove the 
short distance from Canton–just a negro cabin here and there by the wayside 
with quiet, home-loving negroes in their Sunday clothes sitting on their small 
porches and children playing in the yards–no other signs of human life.
	We were told some of the legends of the country of the old families, 
and of the old burying ground but we were not prepared for the arresting beauty 
of the place and the feeling of peace and serenity that we sensed immediately. 
The little cemetery is no larger than a city block, enclosed with a heavy 
wrought iron fence that antedates the Civil War; the sward was as green and 
smooth as a city lawn, kept in perfect condition from year to year through 
contributions from the descendants of those buried there. The care of the old 
burying ground is lovingly supervised by Mrs. Annie Prichard Coulter and Leon 
Pace.
	Bees droned, mocking birds trilled their love songs, the air was cool 
with the tinge of autumn and the sunlight, flitting through the age old trees, 
rested caressingly on one grave, then another. Surrounding it on three sides is 
a dense growth of gnarled cedar trees and giant oaks, casting a protecting 
shade and standing like rugged sentinels keeping watch o’er the dead.
	Large bushes of Cape Jessamines higher than one’s head with intertwined 
branches forming a trunk larger than a man’s body were here, there and 
everywhere and in season the perfume from their waxen blooms fills the nearby 
countryside. Roses, scarlet, pink and creamy white bloomed in profusion and 
wild honeysuckle, clambering over the fence in numbers of places lent its 
perfume.
	The sense of peace, serenity and beauty was deeply impressive. . . 
removed from the sound of traffic, with only the wind sighing gently through 
the old trees, and the songs of mockingbirds.
	Many of the graves was there since the 1700's. Costly marble slabs are 
deeply carved with names and inscriptions that give an insight into the family 
life, wealth and culture of the time. There are some graves, noticeably of 
small children, with heavy iron, vault-like coverings, of an earlier period. A 
number of Confederate soldiers are buried on a gentle slope under the old 
trees, fighting together in life, sleeping together in death.
	As we wondered in and out among the graves, we noted the names of men 
and women, prominent in the history of that section of Mississippi in other 
days:
	The Boyles family, Magruders, Prichards, Hollidays, Soffs, Allens and 
Wiggins, the last four (parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents of Mrs 
John Sharp of Jackson), Coulters, Colemans, Paces, Divines, Baldwins, 
O’Leary’s, Turners, and others. Some of these have been brought from far away 
lands in recent years to sleep besides their loved ones.
	Only one grave differed from the others. In a far off corner, all 
alone, covered with a slab of costly marble, stained by the weather of a 
hundred years, is the grave of a young girl, with the outpouring of some 
tortured heart carved deep into the marble, and still perfectly legible. A 
solitary rose bush with white blossoms stood near the head. On the slab is 
carved:
	“Here repose the mortal remains of 
	SARAH  N. BURNS
	She was born April 15, 1832 and died September 23, 1847.
	Her career on earth was short. She was the child of affliction. The 
protracted illness from which she died was caused by the mismanagement and 
officious interference of pretended friends, but she passed triumphantly away 
and her last words were, “Come, Lord Jesus and take me home.”
		“The beauty of the leaf is gone
		The beauty of the flower is risen
		The birds to other climes have flown
		And there’s an angel more in Heaven.”



Additional Comments:
This wonderful article has been re-typed just as it was printed. We proofed it 
before sending it. I am sorry I don't know which newspaper it came from as this 
article has been handed down through several generations. 

I have a copy of the original, but it contains no date or identification, and I 
just guessed at the year.

Dorothy

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