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

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

The late J. Preston Adams used a quote I think most apropos to our gathering today.  The quote read: “I believe the future is only the past entered through another gate.”  In order to see the future, we have to have known our past. Today’s cemetery tour is in part a look at how two major Monroe families began far in the past to help create a future for their families and the city where they lived. We begin at the grave of my relative, Waters Briscoe, who was instrumental in building the beautiful columned ante-bellum home with its welcoming veranda high on a plot of land not far from where we are, which took its name from where it stood, known as “The Hill”.  This dignified, stately structure was already serving as home to its first family when Atlanta was founded.  

(Click HERE for a photo of "The Hill", later known as the Selman Estate, photo taken 1919)

        Waters Briscoe, one of Walton County’s pioneer settlers, was the son of Truman and Katherine Dunn Briscoe of Virginia.  He was a first honor graduate of one of the earliest classes of Franklin College, now the University of Georgia.  After receiving his diploma, he went to Columbia County to marry Martha Wellborn, the daughter of Elias and Mary Marshall Wellborn. Martha was a granddaughter of Rev. Daniel Marshall who, in the spring of 1772, established the first Baptist Church in Georgia at Kiokee Creek, 20 miles from Augusta. After their marriage the couple returned to Walton County to live.

        “The Hill” was built in 1832 and in the early years consisted of five rooms. Waters & Martha’s children were: Henry Lucillus, Walter Elias, and Mary Virginia who was born in the house in 1827 and later became the wife of George Cowan Selman.

When two of the cities earliest schools opened, The Female Academy on December 24, 1835 and the Monroe Academy on September 5, 1836, Waters Briscoe’s name was listed as a trustee of both institutions.

                After the deaths of Waters and Martha Briscoe, George Selman, whose grave is No. 2 on our list, bought his father-in law’s interest in “The Hill” and the house became known as the “Selman Home”.  As the Selman family grew in size, so did the house until it reached its present size of 15 rooms.

        George Cowan Selman was born on July 10, 1825 to John W. Selman and Sarah Cowan.  Selman’s father was one of seven brothers, all of whom saw service in the Revolutionary War.  Colonel Selman, also known as an Indian fighter, came to this area from North Carolina and he and his wife are buried at the Bethel Baptist Cemetery in Good Hope.  He gave the land on which the Primitive Baptist Church, later known as Bethel Baptist, was built in 1825.

        In 1837 at the age of 12, George Selman was orphaned.  In 1855 at the age of 30, he became a member of the firm Edwin Bates & Co., a wholesale house in Charleston, SC as a salesman for the company.  During the Civil War, the business was suspended and Mr. Selman returned to Monroe and was elected to the legislature.  At the conclusion of the war, Mr. Selman returned to work for the Bates Company which had opened offices in Atlanta and New York. George Selman was given charge of the New York offices which he held until ill health forced his retirement in 1877.  On the advice of his doctors he was advised to lead a “rural life”, so he returned to Monroe, buying up large tracts of land in the county.

        Since there were no banks in Walton County at the time, he assisted farmers and his other friends by lending them money.

        On August 16, 1878 he joined the First Baptist Church of Monroe and was ordained a deacon in 1879 and for several years was Moderator of the Appalachee Association.

        At one point in his life George Selman owned 6,000 acres of land in Walton County.  It has been said that one could travel five miles west without leaving the Selman property.

        Mr. Selman had a natural aptitude for plantation life and his shrewd business judgment won him credit for much of the county’s growth and success.  He was called “The founder of Monroe’s Industrial Progress”.

        In 1899 Mr. Selman organized the Monroe Guano Company which was later known as The Monroe Oil & Fertilizer Co., serving as president. This was the county seat’s first cooperative manufacturing enterprise.  In 1891 he was one of the founders and first president of the Bank of Monroe.  He was also one of two men who, by his financial backing, made possible the establishment of the Monroe Cotton Mills which was chartered on August 19, 1895 and began operation in 1896.

        In the summer of 1896 George Selman became ill and over the years his health continued to decline despite numerous treatments and hospitalizations. As a last resort, he sought treatment at Sulphur Springs, Virginia in hopes of regaining his health.  About a week after returning to his adored ante-bellum home, he died there on September 24, 1899.  

        An obituary of his life in a newspaper from that time read in part: “Monroe is several times the town she was 20 years ago.  More to him than any other person is this progress attributable.”

        George and Mary Virginia Selman had seven children:  Mary Lou, better known as “Miss Lula”, a talented musician and organist at the First Baptist Church for many years, Martha Wellborn, Sarah Catherine, Lucy Stearnes, Judith, George Cowan Selman, Jr. and Eva Selman.

        Eva Selman, who is No. 3 on our list, was the last child born to George and Mary Virginia. She married Dr. Pickney Daniel Pollock an English professor at Mercer University in 1895, who later became president of the university in 1897. They were the parents of one son, Daniel Marshall Pollock, who is No. 5 on our list. With the death of her father, Eva Pollock and her family along with her sisters Judith and Lula, took over the beloved home place where they lived the remainder of their lives. When “Miss Eva” became frail and in poor health, Marshall Pollock and his family moved from their home on Walton Street back to the  historic house and it remained in the family until after the death of Mrs. Marshall Pollock when it was sold outside the family. “Miss Eva” Pollock died on July 1, 1962.

        Dr. Pickney Daniel Pollock, No. 4 on the list, was one of three Walton County citizens to head Mercer University.  The other two were Dr. Gustavus Alonzo Nunnally, who was president of the university from 1889 to 1893, and Dr. Rufus Carrollton Harris, who held one of the longest tenures as a Mercer President, from 1960 to 1980 and then became Chancellor of the university until his death.

        Pickney Daniel Pollock was born in Houston County, Georgia on a farm to humble and honorable parentage on November 22, 1860, to James Green Pollock and his wife, a Miss Bunson who, unfortunately no information about her survives.  Mr. Pollock was the eldest of eight children.  In his early years of school, P. D. Pollock received his education in a one room structure, typical of the period, built of plain boards and roughly hewn logs.  Around 25 to 50 students were taught by one man as at the time women had not gained stature as teachers.  These students were kept “at books” between seven to nine hours a day during the summer season and the range of lessons would about be equal to eight or ten grades of our present system. 

  Being the oldest child Mr. Pollock was relied heavily upon to help with the farm and the chores that went with running such acreage.  He would attend school during the year when work on the farm permitted and in the summer when he received the bulk of his education.  In his early years of schooling he was shown to be extremely bright and intelligent and caught the eye of another teacher, A. A. Marshall who saw in young Pollock an intense mind and a thirst for knowledge few of his other students had.  It was Mr. Marshall who took the boy when he completed his early schooling and gave him preparatory courses enabling him to enter college.  It might be noted here that it was because of this man’s influence on him, when Mr. Pollock’s second child was born, he was given the middle name “Marshall” in honor of his long-time friend and educator.  An interesting biography on the life of Dr. Pollock, written in 1942 by his devoted colleague at Mercer, B. A. Ragsdale, entitled “Memoir of Pickney Daniel Pollock”, provides a thorough and in-depth look into the life of this extraordinary educator.

        Dr. Pollock studied at Mercer in 1879-80; studied English and law at the University of Georgia receiving a B.L. in 1884; studied English, French and German in Paris one year and in Germany the following year then returned to Georgia and taught school at Senoia and Newnan.  In 1893 he was elected Professor of English at Mercer and in 1896 elected Chairman of the Faculty and at the age of 37 in 1897, elected to the office of President of the University.  He married Eva Selman of Monroe on November 24, 1895 and became the proud parents of a son, Daniel Marshall Pollock on November 24, 1901. A daughter, Constance Selman Pollock, aged one year and some months, died on December 10, 1899 and is buried in this plot close to her parents.

        His administration was notable, as mentioned by the trustees of the time in showing “the most remarkable executive ability that has ever controlled the affairs of the institution.  Under his leadership the school has had its greatest prosperity.”

        His success as an educator and administrator went beyond practical business affairs.  He developed a “Mercer Spirit” counted at the time to be unique in both quality and power.  Student pranks ceased and instead of the athletic loyalty which was then common, students accepted the higher purpose of the college as a sacred trust, feeling a deep and pervasive interest in matters of thought and outlook.  John Temple Graves commented at the time after visiting Dr. Pollock’s campus: “I have never seen such devotion in a student body to its alma mater, or such hearty sympathy between students and professors.  There is an atmosphere of mental vitality, a keenness of intellectual life, a spirit of philosophy, a purpose and ambition which is simply thrilling with promise to the future.”

        P. D. Pollock gave everything he had to the university that he so loved and cherished, often times neglecting his health to ensure the university thrived.  Only a few years into his tenure as president, his health began to fail. It seemed to be “an illness that defied the doctors and nurses.” No matter what attentions were shown to him in Macon, Atlanta and other hospitals, no singular diagnosis could be attributed to his decline.  It was as if he had completely used up his body and spirit in giving his all to his beloved Mercer.  When his eyes closed for the last time on Monday, July 24, 1905 in his bedroom at “The Hill”, it was noted by many in both Monroe and Macon how he had “with great efficiency served his day and generation.” 

        Funeral services were held at the Pollock home along with services at the Mercer Chapel.  Both his family and Mercer received countless accolades of his life and service to Mercer for months following his death.  This large granite cross which marks his grave, was donated by students, faculty and other devoted friends to honor one who gave much of his life in the pursuit of higher education and to a university to which he felt a connection of heart and spirit.

        On June 1, 1941 following the Mercer Commencement exercises, a bronze tablet honoring Dr. Pollock’s years of service to Mercer was unveiled in the university chapel.  “Miss Eva” Pollock was in attendance with her son Marshall, his wife, Florence and their two daughters, Florence and Constance, ages seven and three.  The tablet honoring Dr. Pollock was unveiled by his granddaughters “Flonnie” and “Connie”.

        Following in the Pollock lineage is the son of Eva Selman and Pickney Daniel Pollock, No. 5 on our list, Daniel Marshall Pollock.  Marshall or “Polly” as he was known to his friends and neighbors was born on November 24 1901 in Macon, Georgia during his father’s presidency at Mercer. His birth date is the same date as the marriage of his parents six years earlier.  During his father’s tenure at Mercer, the family lived in quarters in the Administration Building.  Following the death of his father, he and his mother returned to Monroe to the family plantation where he grew up and attended the Monroe schools.  He attended the Citadel in Charleston, SC and graduated from the University of Georgia with a law degree in 1923. He was a member of the First Baptist Church and for many years was moderator of the Appalachee Association, a post previously held by his grandfather, George C. Selman.

        A former mayor of Monroe, Marshall Pollock practiced law in Monroe and from 1942 until 1964 he was the solicitor general of the Western Judicial Circuit.  He was one of the founders of the Walton Electric Membership Corporation, serving as its president.  He also was head of the Georgia Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives as well as being one of the original members of the board of directors of the Monroe Golf and Country Club.

        Marshall Pollock’s death on October 24, 1970 at the age of 68 removed from our community a person who was loved and held in high esteem by all who knew him as a relative, friend or lawyer. I have fond memories of “Polly” and Flonnie as close friends of my parents in the early days on Walton Street and the good times they shared over a meal or social gathering.

        We now move into the area once known as “The Walker Burying Ground”.  No. 6 is the grave of Rev. Joseph Prince, one of Monroe’s early ministers who purchased a town lot in 1838.  He was headmaster and instructor of the newly created Male Academy which opened on January 4, 1835.  He was a graduate of Bowdoin College.  He died in Monroe on September 10, 1843.

        Next to Rev. Prince is grave No. 7, of Rev. John H. Walker, who served his country in the Revolutionary War, and was a Baptist Minister. He was born in Prince George County, Maryland and was the first of his family to live in Walton County. Rev. Walker lived part of his life in Lincoln County.  He was married twice; his first wife was a Miss Loflin of Lincoln County and that union produced sons Daniel and William L. Walker.  His second marriage to Elizabeth Johns gave issue to daughters Elizabeth and Martha Leverett. It was Rev. Walker’s son Daniel who married Martha Holliday and from that union came two sons, Billington Sanders Walker and Dickerson Holliday Walker.  Rev. Walker died in Lincoln County, Ga. on June 19, 1836 and was the first member of the Walker family to be buried here.

        Over in the far left corner of this section we come to a lady many people will remember with fondness. No. 8 is Irene Walker Field, daughter of Billington Sanders and Alice Mitchell Walker. She was born June 2, 1885 and married Wade Hampton Field of Cartersville on December 20, 1911. They were parents to daughter Alice Walker Field and son Jere.  “Miss Irene” and Alice lived in the ancestral home of their parents, “Walker Place” until their deaths. With the death of Alice Field, the home was left to her nephew David Field who is in the final stages of renovating the historic home place for his family.  “Miss Irene” was one of three ladies in Monroe who held the esteemed title of postmaster for the city.  Irene held the post longer than anyone, serving Monroe for 29 years. “Miss Irene” died on August 27, 1979.  The other two ladies holding the title were Miss Martha A. Rooks, who later married and become Martha Rooks Schaeffer, holding the office twice and Mrs. Willie Sheets.  One of our last stops will be the grave of Martha Schaeffer, fondly known and remembered by the name “Miss Puss”.

        Across the gravel we come to No. 9, Jere Field, son of Irene Walker Field and Wade Hampton Field, born in Cartersville on August 5, 1917.  He was a 1934 graduate of Monroe High School and received his LL.B from the University of Georgia in 1939.  He began private practice in Monroe in late 1940 and entered the army in 1941 as a private and attaining the rank of First Lieutenant, Infantry.  He returned to Monroe following the war in 1945 renewing his law practice which he continued  until his retirement in 1990.  He was the judge of the Recorder’s Court of Monroe for forty years.  He served as director of the Walton County and Monroe Civil Defense from 1954 to 1960 and was on the Board of Directors for the Monroe Cotton Mills.  He was a deacon of the First Baptist Church, a member of the Rotary Club and a member of the Monroe Golf and Country Club.  He married “Marsie” Florence Moore of Shreveport, La. on March 7, 1943 and they became parents of a son, Jere David Field.

        Jere died on October 18, 1996 at the age of 79 in Charleston, SC where he and Marsie had a seaside home and spent much of their retirement years. Jere was one of the kindest, most sincere people I have ever known and his word was law!  If Jere was your friend, you could have no better. He was one of Monroe’s best; he had to be, having had as his mother “Miss Irene” Walker Field.

        It would be remiss of me if I did not mention the graves across from Jere; No.10, those of Joseph Boyd McCrary and his wife, Mary Neel Walker McCrary.  This distinguished Atlanta couple was responsible for the beautiful rock fence and wrought iron gates at the entrance to this cemetery as well as the walls enclosing the graves of the Walker family which were erected in memory of her parents. The weathered granite that makes up the walls came from the top of Stone Mountain back in the early fifties.  Mary Walker McCrary was a daughter of Billington Sanders Walker and Alice Mitchell Walker and was born in Monroe on December 23, 1878.  She graduated from high school in Griffin, Georgia in 1895 and then entered the Lucy Cobb Institute in Athens.  She married Atlanta businessman and engineer Joseph Boyd McCrary on June 14, 1906.  

Mr. McCrary was an early pioneer and practical exponent of improved living conditions in Southern towns and rural sections, giving a combined engineering, construction, financing, and operating services to many who were living in areas with no electricity or water available to them.  He founded his business, J. B. McCrary Company in 1896 which then was a municipal engineering and construction company and later expanded to other areas.  His engineering company planned or built more than two-thirds of all the municipal water, light and sewer systems in the state of Georgia, more than four thousand systems in the ten Southeastern states.  The name “McCrary” was a synonym for cheerful, well lighted homes, pure water, and smooth pavements, sewerage and sanitation to towns, cities and rural sections of the South. The list of his accomplishments and the generosity of he and his wife to countless charities in Atlanta and Monroe are countless. Prior to their deaths, they were as well known in Monroe as they were in Atlanta, being regular visitors to town where they were always in residence at Mrs. Walker’s former home “Walker Place” then owned by her sister, Irene Field.  Mr. McCrary died on October 28, 1961 and Mrs. McCrary died on March 23, 1967.  Before leaving today, please take a minute or two and read the bronze plaques that pay honor to not only this family but the others resting here who found shelter and solace behind these great walls.

        At the far end of this section we come to No. 11, the grave of one of the most prominent and illustrious of our citizens, former Governor Clifford Mitchell Walker. Gov. Walker was another child of Billington Sanders and Alice Mitchell Walker, being born in Monroe on July 4, 1877.  He received his early education at Johnston Institute under Mr. John Gibson and at Georgia Military Institute.  He later graduated from the University of Georgia with an A.B. Degree along with many awards for scholarship.  He read law for a year in the office of the late R. L. Cox and was admitted to the bar in 1898. On April 20, 1902, Mr. Walker married Rosa Mathewson of Anderson County, SC and two sons were born from this union: Sanders and Harold M. Walker.

 He began active practice in Monroe and in recognition for his ability was named as a referee in bankruptcy under the Federal Law, serving this area in that capacity for ten years. For three years following his graduation from the university, Mr. Walker served Monroe as Mayor being recognized for his qualifications as a director of public affairs.  In 1906 he formed a partnership with the late Orrin Roberts and the firm of Walker & Roberts enjoyed a distinguished reputation in the practice of law until he moved to the governor’s mansion in Atlanta.  In 1909 he was elected solicitor general of the Western Circuit, holding this post until 1912 when he voluntarily retired.  Retiring from public office was not easy for Mr. Walker but pleas from his friends and associates to return to work was of such magnitude, he announced his candidacy for the office of attorney general.  He won by a landslide and served three terms in that office.  He ran for the governor’s office in 1920 but lost by four votes.  Two years later he defeated Thomas Hardwick for the position and held this high office until 1927.  

He was, at the time, Georgia’s last chief executive who became governor without opposition.  In 1937 Mr. Walker and Joseph Kilbride founded the Woodrow Wilson College of Law in Atlanta with Mr. Walker as president.  Under his guidance the school achieved national recognition. In 1937 he was named as general counsel for the labor department which he held until his retirement in 1953. Mr. Walker’s role as president of the school as well as his role as a vice president and a director of the National Bank of Monroe continued until his death.  In 1950, Gov. & Mrs. Walker’s generosity made possible the park across the street from the Baptist Church and was dedicated to the memory of their son, Sanders, who died in 1944.

                 Monroe was stunned when word spread on Tuesday morning, November 9, 1954 that Clifford Walker died suddenly from a heart attack at his home on McDaniel Street at the age of 77. Largely attended funeral services for this gallant and beloved political figure were held at the First Baptist Church on Nov. 11^th with burial here among his ancestors. Monroe holds the distinction as being home to two distinguished governors of the state of Georgia.  Another unknown bit of history about the Walkers is that besides Gov. Walker, there are five other former Georgia governors with ties to the Walker family.

        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.

        We come next to grave No. 14, that of Lucy Ann Johnston, the wife or consort of Dr. David Johnston, one of Monroe’s first doctors back in 1820.  He purchased a town lot in 1821. If Dr. Johnston was buried here next to his wife, any indications of his grave have long been erased.  Lucy Johnston died on March 11, 1832 in her 32^nd year.

        Thomas Giles grave is No. 15 on our tour.  He was one of Monroe’s early ordinaries, serving from 1872 to 1889. One of his greatest accomplishments was in seeing the completion of the present courthouse, a dream made true from years of thrift and careful planning. When the courthouse was finished many of the townsfolk referred to it as “Judge Giles’s Courthouse”.  He also laid into the cornerstone of the new courthouse, the specifications of the county’s first courthouse along with a copy of Monroe’s first newspaper, The Southern Witness, and Georgia Treasury Notes and the Constitution of the Confederate States of America. Two of Judge Giles’s brothers, Alonzo Church and Jackson B. Giles, were killed during action in the Civil War.  Giles was one of Monroe’s strongest and staunchest supporters in his belief of the city’s growth and prosperity.  As evidence of this belief, he bequeathed land and funds for use by the Fifth District A & M School near Monroe.  He also provided educational funding to aid the local boys in attending school. The Giles Educational fund had by the late 60’s provided help for over 50 students totaling almost $50,000. He was, in 1884, named chairman of the committee to build a new jailhouse.  In the area where the CVS Pharmacy is now, there was a small street named “Giles Place” which connected Wayne and Alcova Street, with the old Giles home place facing Giles Place.  The  street was closed in when the drug store was built and the house was moved to another area. Thomas Giles died in Monroe on January 23, 1917.

        Next to Thomas Giles is grave No. 16, his father, Jackson Brown Giles, who came to Monroe and became one of the cities early shoemakers or cobblers.  Jackson B. Giles was buried here after his death during the Civil War on July 2, 1863. Alonzo was killed in action on June 27, 1863 and is also buried here among his relatives. Jackson Brown Giles died suddenly on January 1, 1870, his 77^th birthday, of a stroke while sitting in front of Calvin G. Nowell’s store visiting with friends.

        Our last two graves, No. 17 & 18 are those of Joel Rooks and his sister, Martha Rooks Schaeffer, affectionately known as “Miss Puss”. While Joel Rooks was an early 1850’s carpenter who died on May 25, 1864, it was his sister Martha who laid claim for the personality and charm of the two. Martha Rooks Schaeffer was one of three ladies to serve the town as postmaster.  Martha first began her stint as the head of the post office while still single. She had a small wooden structure built in her back yard which served as the city’s post office.  The one-room facility fronted on our present Midland Ave and was also accessible from today’s East Spring Street.  When she took on the appointment scarcely two years after the Civil War, on March 21, 1867, she began what was to be 88 years of feminine occupancy of this position. Martha Rooks Schaeffer was postmaster from March 1867 to May 1886. She was followed by Miss Willie Sheats who held the office from January 1897 to December 1926.  

On December 11, 1926, Irene Walker Field took office holding the title for 29 years, the longest tenure in the Monroe Post Office history.  Anita Sams records in her history of Monroe some entertaining stories concerning “Miss Puss’s” tenure at the post office referring to her as one of Monroe’s “most colorful characters”.  One comment was made about how hard it was for her to turn loose the tight reins she held on the post office and if she had not died when she did, she might have held on a bit longer!  She died on November 16, 1900 and the stone covering her grave reads: “Hers was a noble, useful, consecrated life.”

        I hope today’s tour of old Monroe has provided a glimpse  of the fore-bearers who brought honor and distinction to our city and now take their rest in this beautiful consecrated plot of land that dates so far back. It has been a privilege to compile and present to you this look back in time and visit with those whose names are indelibly stamped in the pages of Monroe’s history.