John Wansley Family Cemetery

Coldwater Creek, Elbert County, Georgia

My name is Jim Allen Wansley. Currently, I’m one of several members of the James Hamilton Wansley branch of the John and Mildred Wansley family tree that are launching and providing information for the Wansleyfamily.org website.

I am co-authoring this report, along with my cousin James (Jim) Baker Evans, regarding the Wansley Family Cemetery located near Coldwater Creek in Elbert County Georgia. Jim Evans has done extensive research concerning the John and Mildred Wansley family. His portion of this report relates to the research he has done regarding this cemetery and those buried there.

In 2004 my wife, Cynthia Ann Callison Wansley, and I visited the cemetery. My contribution to this report consists of pictures of it, certain information regarding its actual location and what Cynthia and I experienced while there.

We left our hometown of Whitehouse, in East Texas, on a journey that would end in North Carolina. We had a list of places to see on the way. On that list was a visit to the cemetery. Upon arriving in Elberton Georgia we visited the local historical society and the public library and made inquiries aimed at determining exactly where it was. We received only general directions indicating we would leave Elberton on Hwy 368 (Anderson Hwy) and find the cemetery somewhere just before reaching Coldwater Creek.

Today, Coldwater Creek is a tributary of Lake Hartwell, one of the largest lakes in that part of the United States. One result of the creation of the Lake Hartwell Dam in the 1950s is the proximity of its shoreline to the cemetery. Its waters are closer to the cemetery now than in 2004, when we were there. However, the cemetery is located in an elevated area and not likely to be flooded.

Having crossed the creek we stopped at a small bait shop and store and, though the exact location was not known to the clerk, we were directed back to the Elberton side of Coldwater Creek and to a certain house belonging to the Burton family. Upon stopping in there we were given directions and permission to cross the property to access the cemetery by Mrs. Burton, as Mr. Burton was not at home.

Consisting of 140 acres the property was sold to Reuben Wansley by Franklin Cunningham in 1809 and, in 1867, it was conveyed by Johnson Wansley to his mother, Elizabeth , excluding the quarter acre family burying ground. This quarter acre dedicated to the Wansley Family Cemetery was actually surveyed and carved out in 1955 by an agreement between Luther Burton and Frank N. Wansley, to insure “preserving it for posterity perpetually”.

To get to it we walked into the woods abutting an area cleared for crops and soon found the cemetery. The one-quarter acre lot had a low rock wall that had fallen into disrepair, but still defined the cemetery boundary. It abuts the HWY 368 (Anderson Hwy) right of way on one side and the Burton property on the other three sides. It is at a much higher elevation than the highway and cannot be seen from the road. Probably a fortunate development when the road was cut in as its location likely prevented the vandalism of older, remote cemeteries that is so prevalent nowadays.

The cemetery had numerous trees and bushes growing inside its boundaries. We went back and borrowed a few tools from Mrs. Burton and then worked for a number of hours clearing the cemetery grounds. We hadn’t been at it very long at all when Cynthia, having made an unsettling discovery, climbed atop John Wansley’s granite marker and cried out to me. I rushed over and soon found that an incredible number of ticks were crawling toward her from all sides of the horizontal granite marker.

We fled the cemetery and went to our vehicle, where we sprayed ourselves liberally with insect repellent. Fortunately, living in the piney woods of East Texas, insect repellant is something I don’t leave home without. We then returned to the cemetery, sprayed the ticks we could see and finished our brush and tree removal. We were able to remove all but one or two of the trees.

We returned the tools, thanked Mrs. Burton, and went back to the store across Coldwater Creek to see if they had a shower facility. They did not. However, a gentleman overheard our query and volunteered the use of his nearby country house to clean up. As he was known to the clerk, and given that no facility would be available for quite a ways as we travelled through that remote area of Georgia and South Carolina, we accepted his offer. He was from Atlanta, relatively new to the area and enjoyed hearing about our family history. He even offered us the use of his guest house for the night.

Already behind our trip schedule, and with a hotel room reserved in Columbia South Carolina, we declined and continued on our way. After spraying our discarded clothes on more time and securing them in plastic bags, that is.

We documented several of the graves at the Wansley family cemetery, click HERE to see.