Cool Springs Cemetery is very important to the Hughes-Smith-Sherrill-Porter-Brown Family. Six generations of our family are buried in this little forgotten patch of land. My grandparents and 12 of their 14 children are buried there.
This cemetery is also known as The Marvin Cemetery. It is an active cemetery with family burials still being held there. Before 1900 the men in our family would use the morning of the 4th of July to clean the cemetery. They would get up early and go to the cemetery, cut the grass, and remove fallen limbs, etc. The women of the family would join them at mid-day and bring lunch. Over the years the tradition became a family reunion/picnic. As a little girl in the early 50s, I can remember my sweet daddy going out early on the 4th, cleaning the cemetery, then returning to pick up the family and we would go back to the cemetery for the picnic. I have wonderful memories of being with my family there. Folks have thought this a very strange place for a picnic, but to our clan, it’s just an opportunity to be together again.
Now we try and have 2 clean-up days a year. One in late winter, and another a few weeks before the 4th of July. We have taken it upon ourselves to reclaim the cemetery from Mother Nature. Every year we clean a few more graves, other than those of our family members. Hopefully, one day we will have recovered all of it.
We have always been told that there are Indian and Slave graves there. There are a good many fieldstone markers, so who knows, maybe there are Indians and Slaves in repose there. The oldest marker I have identified is that of Eli Cornwell b. 18 Sep 1807 d. 29 Mar 1838.
I pray that the younger members of our family will continue this long-held family tradition.
— Claudia Hutchins, Atlanta, Georgia