The Tupelo journal. (Tupelo, Miss.) 1876-1924, 1905-09-22

One Weeks Outing from the Old
en- Time.
And yet it, not altogether from
what might very properly b
lcalled the olden time. But wha
/ wish to speak Of this week il
} more modern than the pictures
| have been penning for some
months in the Journal. On tn,
first day Of the present month,
went, in company with an oil
settler from, here to the old Beth
lehem grave yard, where the
neighborhood had met for the
purpose of putting the graves in
order. Those people over there
are not like we town people ir
the manner of their living, judg-
ing from the fact that the work
was about done when my friend
and I got on the ground. There
was for many years a Cumber-
land Presbyterian church and
church house there, to which
the cemetery was attached, and
to which congregation my broth
err B. L. Clayton preached for
many years. The church was
organized by an uncle of mine
by the name of Abner S. Clayton
and whose body rests there in
the old grave yard. The church
was organized about the fall of
1849, and the preaching place at
that time was an old bush arbor,
and it was located lust about
where Davis Young's house now
rests, and my grand father, c..
| C. Clayton, then lived on the
Davis Young place, south of
where Mr.. Young's house is, and
near a high bluff on the creek.
The old house Of the Bethlehem
congregation was built some
years later, probably about 1851
or 1852. l remember an incident
about the deed to the property
there which occurred some years
ago. The deed to the church
and grave yard property was CIV
en- by M. F. Whitehead. and al
though many years had expired
from the giving of the deed when
this incident occurred, had a
| slight remembrance of having
written it. At any rate, some
years ago, / was appealed to in
the interest of some Of those
having loved ones buried there,
that trespasses were being COM
mitted on the grave yard prop
erty, and l was asked to inves-
tigate the matter, and ascertain
the right to the property and
the extent Of the same.
I then reflected about the
matter, and rem NIB g
that Mr.. Whitehead, an elder
of the church, made the deed, /
went to the chancery clerks Of
fee, and soon found a reference
to the deed. But when I turned
to the record to read it, / found
that it did not convey any prop
erty at all. It started out all
right and ran one line all right,
and the balance Of the deed was
without sense. remarked to
Norbin Jones, the then clerk,
that / was sure that / never
made any such mistake as that
in all the deeds | had ever writ
ten. / then requested Norbin
to examine his office to see if the
original deed could be found
On searching through many pa.
pers we finally found the origina
deed: and sure enough, it was
in my hand writing, but it spoke
in plain and unmistakable terms
showing the boundaries of thu
plot Of ground. The clerk VIII
preceded Mr.. Jones had left ou
one entire line in recording the
deed and thus made it appear nc
deed at all. l had this corrected
on the record, and then looked
after the trespass.
The old Cumberland Presby
terian church was dissolved man,
years ago. and the old church
building has long since disappear
ed. Many of my kin are burieG