Boone Family Cemetery / Neal's Landing Boone / Neal Academy Cemetery
Jackson County, Florida

Photo by: Charles and Barbara Poythress Neal
A photo of the general area, with the larger of the three fenced-in cemetery portions in the center of the photo (almost invisible thru the trees -- you have to know to look in the middle of the photo to see that there is indeed a fenced-in area at all, and then you can see that there are the backs of a couple of people there.

Three Survey's and Three Names for this Cemetery!

Boone Family Cemetery, Jackson County, Florida
(Survey done in late 1950's)
Section 34, Township 7, Range 8
WPA 134

BOONE, Ada Cherry, b. 8 May 1875 d. 20 Jul 1885, Parents T J & M E Boone
BOONE, John C, <one date>, 8 Apr 1937, Fla Put 105 M G Bn 27th Div
BOONE, Martha , <one date>, 3 May 1886
BOONE, William R , b. 20 Nov 1812 d. 1 Jul 1887,   h/o Martha Boone "Neal"
CARTER, Francis M G, b.  3 Jan 1838 d. 20 Jan 1880, h/o Sally Y Carter (Boone)
CARTER, Sallie Y "Boone", b.  20 Mar 1845 d. 10 Nov 1871

PEACOCK,  I D, b.  29 Mar 1932 d. 18 Nov 1908, h/o Martha Peacock (The last name listed there, which is one of the markers we did not see when we were there, shows I.D. Peacock, husband of Martha Peacock, being born 24 yrs after dying: b. 29 Mar 1932, d. 18 Nov 1908) (I am not sure this person should be listed here. Can someone tell? Betty)

This cemetery is currently on private property.

Neal's Landing Boone / Neal Academy Cemetery

Survey by: Cecil Hewett and Randy Scott e-mail [email protected]
Surveyed: April 2000

Neal's Landing Boone, or Neal Academy cemetery is quite a rustic ancient thing to see. The markers I saw were these were really worn with age.

Cecil Hewett is 82 and has been compiling genealogy of Hewett's and Brogden's and all the other families since his late teens! he even secured permission and took me to find the Boone cemetery formerly known as the Neal Academy cemetery. Where once there were over 100 graves now we find only 4 with markers, all the rest were bulldozed according to Cecil.

The site is on private hunting preserve land along the remnants of the old River Road. The cemetery has many ground depressions so one knows when you are walking on hallowed ground.

The old site has an ancient wrought iron fencing around it and around an infant grave and that of perhaps 2-3 adults but, again, and tragically, with no markers.

I think that someone could go to the river bank near there, Chattahoochee, between the bridge at Neal's Landing and walk thru the water out up to 20 feet or so for a half mile and might just find the missing stones that were alleged to have been dumped there. Cecil saw them lying across the dirt road thru this private property across from Neal Academy site (the cemetery sits some 60-80 feet off this old original River Road site) he told them they were desecrating the site and he would notify the County Commissioners. When he came back a while later an old black man told him the stones were picked up and dumped in the river!

Cecil's great grandmother, Nancy Conner Brogden is buried there (died 1868) I just learned she was sister to Reuben Conner who married my great great grandfather, James Franklin Scott's sister, Rhoda Ann.

The latest reads:
John C. Boone Fla Pvt 105M.G. (Machine Gun) Battalion 27 Div. 4-8-1937

Another reads:
MOTHER Samantha (?) wife of Wm A. Boone Nov 15,1815 May 3, 1886 William's reads ....20 1812 186..

The 4th one lies just in front of theirs and was too corroded to read but I think it said " Boone" also.

Boone Cemetery, also known as Neal's Landing Boone or Neal Academy Cemetery;
Jackson County, FL

Listed as #134 in WPA Listing of Jackson County, FL cemeteries

Surveyed by: Charles and Barbara Poythress Neal email [email protected]

Directions: Section 34, Township 7 North, Range 8 West. Located on private hunting preserve land, south of State Highway 2 before it crosses the river at Neal's Landing, and east of Timberlane Road. The land is owned by __________ __________  and Charles Patrick is caretaker for the land. Visitors should seek permission before going on the property. From the crest of what remains of the old original River Road, continue on the old road toward the river about 50 yards; there turn left, leaving the road, and go about 80 feet into the woods. The GPS location coordinates are: North 30 degrees, 57.778 minutes; West 85 degrees, 0.83 minutes.

Notes: The cemetery seems to have originally been much larger than just the 3 fenced-in-areas, with obvious grave-sized depressions between & beyond the 3 fenced-in-areas. It is impossible to determine exactly how much larger the cemetery originally was, without spending significantly longer there than we were able to do. At various spots around the cemetery area of the woods, are humps of dirt that would result from bulldozing.

However, judging from the growth on these humps, and judging from size of the trees throughout the area, the bulldozing would have been done at least twenty years ago and maybe longer. There appeared to have been a fire at some point in more recent years.

Use of a probe might locate other markers.

One small grave surrounded by wrought iron fence must have been a child's grave from its size. No marker could be found there without a probe.

Another fence surrounded an area sufficient in size for an adult's grave. No marker could be found there without a probe.

Near the above fenced graves were graves that had at one time been marked off, and/or covered, with many old bricks which have now deteriorated greatly. No markers could be found there without a probe.

Survey: Markers as recorded in May 2000, with spelling, abbreviations, and upper/lower case letters as on the markers. Use of a flashlight was necessary, shown on the stone line-by-line, in order to read each portion of each line. While photos were not taken with the light on every line, the transcription was recorded on the spot as each portion of a line was visible. The information in square brackets does NOT appear on the markers; it was added by us for clarification.

In a larger wrought iron fence were a number of graves, but only three markers:

FATHER WM. A. BOONE Born Nov. 20, 1812 Died July 1, 1887 AGED 74 Yrs. 7 Mos. & 10 Days [son-in-law of Daniel Odom Neel & Sarah (Sally) Harrison; William was brother of Gilly Crawford Boone who married Benjamin Harrison Neel]
Photo taken May 1997 - Martha Neel Boone	Photo taken May 1997 - Wm A Boone
MOTHER MARTHA Wife of Wm. A. Boone Born Nov. 15, 1815 Died May 3, 1886 AGED 70 Yrs. 5 Mos. & 17 Days [Martha Neel, daughter of Daniel Odom Neel & Sarah (Sally) Harrison; Martha was sister of William M.C. Neel and Benjamin Harrison Neel]
ERECTED To the memory of FRANCIS M.G. CARTER Born Jan. 3, 1833 Died Jun 20, 1880 [At some point long ago, this stone was broken in half; it has been put back together] [While we do not know, he could have been the husband of Sallie Y. Boone, whose marker had previously been recorded as being at this cemetery, b. 20 Mar 1845; d. 10 Nov 1871] Photo taken May 1997.
The pieces of one marker were located, dug up, and placed back together like a jigsaw puzzle; one additional piece was located after the accompanying photo was taken, which piece completed the year of birth. The portions of this marker that could be read follow: Little Berta Daughter of ______ & CALLIE HODGES BORN Dec. __, 1879 DIED Sept. 1[9 or 5?], 1884 Asleep in Jesus [We do not know this family] Photo taken May 1997.
Outside of this main fenced area, was the most recent marker found: [cross at top of marker] JOHN C. BOONE FLORIDA PVT [Private] 105 M[achine] G[un] BN [Battalion] 27 DIV[ision] APRIL 8, 1937 [We do not know who his parents were]

At the Neal's Landing Boone Cemetery website, Martha's marker has her first name incorrect; William's marker is far from complete; and Francis M.G. Carter's is not given at all. Also part of what is posted on the website makes it sound like NO markers are contained in "the ancient wrought iron fencing" (that Randy describes in his 4th  paragraph). That wording is misleading. In the largest of the 3 fenced-in areas we saw, are the markers for Wm Boone, Martha [Neel] Boone, and Francis M.G. Carter.

At the Boone Cemetery website listing, it indicates there is only one date on Martha [Neel] Boone's marker, though actually there are two dates. That website also has the wrong middle initial for Wm Boone, and it spells out his first name though on the actual marker, it is abbreviated, Wm.

Further, the Boone Cemetery website lists 3 markers that we could not locate at all. Perhaps they are just laying down and are covered by leaves, etc, like the Hodges marker was in May 1997. If so perhaps use of a probe will locate them. Or perhaps sometime in the passing years, descendants moved the markers to some other cemetery. At any rate, our not being able to find them either in May of 1997 or in May of this year, tends to indicate to me that the currently posted, undated listing at the Boone Cemetery website was done many years ago. The 3 markers we could not find are listed at the Boone Cemetery website as:
"BOONE, Ada Cherry, b. 8 May 1875 d. 20 Jul 1885. Parents TJ & ME Boone"
"CARTER, Sallie Y 'Boone,' b. 20 Mar 1845 d.10 Nov 1871" [strange to me that hers is not to be found, though her apparent husband's stone is still there]
"PEACOCK, I D, b. 29 mar 1932 d. 18 Nov 1908, h/o Martha Peacock" [His could've been moved to later place it with hers elsewhere when she died, if she outlived him]

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