MAYS-COLE-SIMPKINS CEMETERY

 

Located on Parcel #37-09-27-0000-0950-0030 belonging to Gerald F. and Victoria D.  Hughes of Jacksonville.  Cemetery is approximately 100 feet from the river in a heavily wooded area.  Entrance was made on the northerly edge of a cleared field, approximately 600 feet southerly of the bridge over Hastings Drainage Canal #17, formerly known as Graveyard Branch or Cemetery Branch.  Cemetery is also approximately 175 feet south of the canal.  See BRADDOCK CEMETERY. 

 

The headstones have been removed and some may have been bulldozed into river.  [This could be a ‘proto-urban legend’ created by the fact that former owner Barton L. Peck had concrete bulkheads put in, and remnants of those on the shoreline and elsewhere on the property still exist.]  The bodies were not removed, but remain buried here.   We found remnants of stones, possibly used as tombstone bases, and a granite corner marker with an “M” engraved on it.  Also, there is a concrete slab approximately 3 x3 feet that used to hold a granite marker that read “Old Mays Cemetery Established 1832”.  This marker was last seen in the late 1980’s or early 1990’s, but was removed by persons unknown soon after that, for reasons unknown.  Most of the information about this cemetery was provided by Mary Murphy-Hoffmann, a descendant of one of those buried there, and Lynn Hoffmann, her husband.  The cemetery was for the founding families of the Orange Mills area.  HASTINGS QUAD.  We took two GPS readings, one approximately 75 feet in from the river, N 29o 42.919 W 81o 32.896, and one southeast of the graves at the edge of the cleared field, N 29o 42.920 W 81o 32.940.  (Destroyed). 

 

Since the time of that survey done in 1999, the site has been ‘sanitized’ of any of the remaining stone fragments, base stones, the corner markers, and a piece of fence sticking out of a tree.  A metal detector revealed that the tree had grown around an iron fence post.  This was discovered February 2002 when Lot 4 was put up for sale.  A meeting was held on March 27 on the site between the surveyors, new owners of Lot 4, the realtor, the Hoffmanns, and Carlis McLeod and Leroy Zetrouer of the Cemetery Task Force to determine whether or not Lot 4 is in the clear.  It appears to be so.  The Hoffmanns are purchasing a survey of Lot 3, which should be in the drawing stage now.  The surveyors flagged several of the depressions and are putting them on the survey.  They also dug down in several places and found brick foundations, and in one case a hand went through a wooden surface into space--possibly a coffin?  Or a liner?  Looking around the cleared area of Lot 3 you can see depressions all over the place.

 

[NOTE:  This cemetery is being ‘watched’ by the Hoffmanns.]

 

See related story, Moving Monuments to Preserve History.

 

HOME

 

LAST NAME

FIRST NAME

BIRTH

DEATH

COMMENTS (sic)

VOCATION/TRADE

PHOTOGRAPHS

CALL

LUCY LEE

1856

1859

 

 

MARKER

CALL

SARAH MAYS

1854

1871

ELDEST DAUGHTER OF GEORGE W. AND SARAH STARKE CALL.  ADOPTED DAUGHTER OF A. H. AND ANNIE L. COLE.

 

MARKER

CALL

SARAH STARKE

1833

1858

DAUGHTER OF R. G. AND SARAH B. MAYS

 

MARKER

COLE

ARCHIE WOOLRIDGE

?

?

1 YEAR 8 MONTHS.  (Archie was 6 mos. old in the 1860 Census which was enumerated 6/9/1860.)

 

MARKER

COLE

ANNIE L. LAMAR

1827

1871

DAUGHTER OF R. G. AND SARAH B. MAYS

 

MARKER

COLE

ARCHIBALD HAMBLIN

 

 

 

 

MARKER

COWGILL

LYDIA

1825

1871

DAUGHTER OF DR. ARNOLD AND MARY S. NAUDAIN.  BORN IN DELAWARE.  WIFE OF DR. C. A. COWGILL.

 

MARKER

MAYS

ELIZABETH NANCY

 

 

see SIMPKINS

 

 

MAYS

ANNIE L. LAMAR

 

 

see COLE

 

 

MAYS

SARAH STARKE

 

 

see CALL

 

 

MCCALLUM

EUGENE

1821?

1859?

INFO PROVIDED BY MARY E. MURPHY-HOFFMANN

CIVIL ENGINEER

 

MCCALLUM

DAUGHTER

1859?

1859?

INFO PROVIDED BY MARY E. MURPHY-HOFFMANN

 

 

NAUDAIN

LYDIA

 

 

see COWGILL

 

 

SIMPKINS

ELIZABETH NANCY MAYS

1829

1862

DAUGHTER OF R. G. AND SARAH B. MAYS

 

MARKER
PORTRAIT

Since the first wife is buried here, It is also probable that DR. CLAYTON A. COWGILL, 1826-1893? and his second wife, THROOP M. BABB, 1826-???? are buried here.  There is also the possibility that DANIEL COWGILL, SR of Penn (one of the many names for Orange Mills), who passed on 9/25/1885, the father of Dr. Cowgill, is buried here.

 

Relatives of the Mays and other ‘old-timers’ recall at least eighteen graves being located here.

 

 

 

Last updated:  6/21/2018

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