Swindle Graveyard

Swindle (Brown-Swindle) Cemetery
Mrs. Robert E. Mathews (Frances Ophelia Durham Mathews)
January 18, 1980
(My apologies for not recalling who gave me the copy)

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.