HISTORIC WOOLSEY CEMETERY
Ferrol Sams, storyteller, doctor, and author, tells of visits to his grandfather's grave at Woolsey Cemetery with two of his grandsons on Christmas morning to carry on a family tradition.
"The sun was rising when I gathered them that morning, and it made
the winter trees acrossthe fields glow gold with slanted light. We tiptoed.
We bent over. We hugged the granite marker carved with
'Sams. Compton. Giles. Cole.' The boys looked at me and I nodded.
'Christmas gift!' they shrieked as they sprang around the sidesand into the family plot."
– Ferrol Sams, from Christmas Gift!
Each cemetery tells the unique story of its community and the people buried there. Although no records identify the first burials in the cemetery, originally known as the Thomas Bolling Gay Burial Ground, genealogical research and personal journals indicate that two of Thomas B. Gay's children were buried here in the 1830s. In 1875, Gay's heirs sold the property to Dr. I. G. Woolsey, who allowed members of the community to be buried in the cemetery.
In December 1906, Juan Fernandez McLean installed the original Stewart Iron Company fence around the cemetery. In 2007, Woolsey Baptist Church replaced it with a modern fence. To preserve its history, the original fence is featured in the Friends of Historic Woolsey logo.
Friends of Historic Woolsey is committed to preserving the cemetery, sharing its stories, educating future generations, and honoring those laid to rest here. Along with maintaining the cemetery grounds, Friends of Historic Woolsey commissioned a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) survey that identified forty-four potential unmarked graves outside the existing cemetery fence.
Please do not remove historic grave markers or other artifacts from the cemetery. If you have previously replaced an unreadable marker, we ask that you contact us and return the original so it can be restored to its proper location.
We continue to restore and improve Historic Woolsey Cemetery. We would also like to have a family representative for every person buried here. If you would like to volunteer or share information about someone buried in the cemetery, such as their occupation, military service, interests, or family history, please contact us.
Historic Woolsey Cemetery – Policies and Regulations
Ground Penetrating Radar - 40 Unmarked Graves Located
(Click the first photo to enlarge and then click the arrow to the right to move to the next photo).
.jpg "More Graves Found Photo by Gary Laggis © 2023")
.jpg "More Graves Photo by Gary Laggis © 2023")
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