Profiles from a tour of the Old Baptist Church Cemetery In Monroe, Georgia

Conducted, Written and provided courtesy Nowell Briscoe ( [email protected] )

 HENRY HARDEN AND MARTHA MORGAN

Moving back out from the Walker plot back into the main grounds, we come next to grave 12, that of Henry Harden, who was a Revolutionary War veteran and was a trustee for the Poor School Fund in 1821.  He later bought a town lot in 1824.  His death occurred on May 8, 1843.

        No. 13 on our tour is one of the earliest marked graves in this cemetery, that of Martha Morgan, mother of Elisha Betts, the man who founded our city and gave Monroe its name. Martha came from Virginia to Monroe in 1820 and died on August 17, 1826 at the age of 67. She had been a Baptist for almost 40 years when she died. Her son was responsible for the village that was to become Monroe having its name changed from Walton Court House to Monroe, honoring President James Monroe, which was approved by those in power on February 25, 1821. With Monroe becoming the county seat, the village was incorporated and Martha’s son was one of the commissioners of the newly formed town. 

When his mother died in 1826, Betts owned five town lots in Monroe and approximately 750 acres in Walton, Henry and Monroe counties.  Wanting to give his mother the best possible burial space, he chose this spot on his wooded property beneath the oaks, pines and magnolias for her resting place.  In December 1833, he deeded to Walton Inferior Court the immediate area surrounding her grave, stipulating that the property was never to belong to an individual but should always remain a burial site. Since no records have surfaced indicating the origin of how this land came to be connected, speculation is that this area of ground adjoined the Walker Burying ground and along with the property belonging to either George Selman or Edgar S. Tichenor and became what we know today as the Old Baptist Cemetery.