The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-10-27
HISTORICAL.

An old Graveyard at Decatur, Ala.
 Extracts from an article published in The New Decatur Advertiser. De- tober. 1898. sey
 Lafayette Street. between Railroad and Bank, gives never a thought to the fact that on the south side of the way, with beer depot on one flank and Q tonsorial parlor on the other. lies little plat of ground in which are buried people of the long ago, whose history and that of the town are closely interwoven. The stranger would not realize, unless specially post ed. that almost under the shadow of popular hotel. and within half a block of the main business street of Decatur, Is a cemetery. whose tomb stones and memorial slabs have grown black and dim with weather stains. and which will remain a burial ground for ever, no matter how the .pooms may come and go, or business needs de- mand extensionS of the building room. For 1t Is so nominated in the deed of Rhodes to Sykes. way back in the year 1sss-oyer sixty years ago. in point of fact.
 This old Rhodes graveyard is in- closed by a wire fence, on two sides. a brick building on a third, and the side fronting the street has a rough wood- en fence, through a small gate in which the curious 1ounger may pass to a closer inspection of the graves. The lot is oyergrown with locust and thorn sprouts, while blackberry bushes and vines hide in some cases the inscrip- tions on the stones. Several trees make a grateful shade, too.
 The first memorial Snet is a rough stone set up on other slabs at sides and ends. The top is broken across the head. where Masonic emblems are carved. This is the grave of Alex. Ross, born February 14, 17s3. and de- parted this life August IT, 1849. The remainder of the inscription reads:
 AZ, 66 years months 3 days. He died in the triumphs of the Christian faith, with the steadfast hope of a bright Immortality, and as Royal and Select Mason on earth, may he enter as one of the Select into that heavenly Temple mot made with hands," of the Supreme Grand Master of the Uni- verse.
 Blessed are they who die in the Lord, that they may rest from their la bours and their works do follow them" Rev. nc 1sV.
 Tn this row of graves which lie not ten feet from the sidewalk, the second on the west of MT. Ross, has a slab broken in two, supported by four others, inclosing the spas where the fresh earthen mound was shaped on the funeral day. The epitaph, though diff ficult to decipher. shows that beneath the stone lies Sarah Evelina Dancy, daughter of H. w. and W. M. Rhodes. '-who was born May Ii, 1920, and died October 20. 1886 aged 16 years, one month, eighteen days
 
 There are six graves in the next row just South of those described. Five of these have the usual broad slab of stone, and one has a shaft. perhaps eight feet high, incribed on two of It's four sides. The first slab at the West side of the yard is commemorative on Patience Rhodes. the date of whose birth Is blank. It continues:
 And departed this life May 11th, 1926, the deceased lived out a good old age and constantly discharged the duties of wife and mother with fondness and fidelity. She evinced calmness and resignation to deatR which only could have arisen from a hope of happy i'm mortality.
 This stone was erected to the memory of his mother as a tribute of fillial af- lection by her son. Thomas W. Rhodes anno domini. 1892
 The next slab is broken transversely in two places and one fragment lies on the ground. The inscription is therefore mutilated. What is decipher- ed reads;
 Sacred to the memory of Sarah W. Sykes born July 26th, A. D., 1794, died January 29th A. D.. 1885. Her heart was the sanctuary of kindness, through her hands issued the stream of benevo- Iepces--hIle the humble poor--erflow-