Notes:
Sparks Cemetery notes and/or description:
This cemetery may have started out as the BAILEY Family Cemetery - in 1855, a 1-acre family graveyard was excepted in a deed of sale for the BAILEY plantation, which encompassed all of Land Lot #61, the north half of Lot #36 and the north half of Lot #29 in the Fifth Land District of Carroll County, Georgia. This plantation was said to be on the road from Palmetto to Carrollton. Dingler Crossroads lies just about at the center of Lot #29.
The Sparks Cemetery is located in Lot #61, in General Militia District #729. From the intersection of Banning Road and Hutcheson Ferry Road (a.k.a. Dingler Crossroads), go west on Hutcheson Ferry Road 3,344 feet, crossing a small branch, to the second small dirt road on the left side. From there, go 525 feet to the top of the hill. The cemetery is on the left, with a sign marking it. It is on the top of a hill overlooking the Snake Creek Reservoir. Note: this cemetery is on private property, said to be owned by Temple Inland Co., who sell hunting leases on it. There are several deer stands along the road to it.
Surveys conducted by Mrs. L. K. HACKNEY of Cross Plains, Georgia, in or before 1983, and by Sam PYLE and J. P. ROWE on 17 FEB 2004, report 10 marked graves, and a total of 58 graves, many of which are marked with only field stones as head markers or head and foot markers, but which have no identifying markings. One ledger (slab) marker with no markings was reported, as well as one stone crypt (grave of Solomon STICHER).
This cemetery has also been surveyed in the mid-1870s by Miss Dora AYRES, as reported by Linda S. AYERS , and also surveyed(date?), as the "Stisher-Ward Cemetery," by Eleanor S. Davis
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Bailey Family Cemetery notes and/or description:
In a letter (dated 16 MAR 1920) to a grandchild, Dr. Joseph Robertson HOOD mentioned that when he knew her, Mrs. Betsey (COPLAND) BAILEY was residing on a "large, well-improved and very fine farm on Snake's Creek in Carroll Co, GA," including a large and extra-fine body of bottom land, which her husband has left her. The public road from Carrollton to Palmetto runs through this farm, and family members are buried in a graveyard near the residence. (This farm was evidently on a tract including land lots #61, north half of #36, and north half of #29 in the Fifth Land District of Carroll County.)
Martha P. (ADERHOLD) SPARKS, wife of Moses Andrew Jackson SPARKS and granddaughter of Robert & Betsy, wrote: "Her [Nancy Elizabeth(BAILEY) ADERHOLD's] father moved from S.C. near Anderson, then they [came] to Carroll [sic - Campbell] County, Georgia, then to Carroll county; her father's home and farm was on Snakes Creek; he lived and died there and was burried at the grave yard on the place. His wife was Elizabeth COPLAND and her people came from Ireland. Her husband was Inglish. Billy COPLAND was her Cousin, he was a first cousin; I'm a third cousin [to Billy]."
John M. DALE was the son-in-law of Robert S. & Betsy (COPELAND) BAILEY and served as Executor of Robert's estate. He bought out the other heirs' interest in the property Robert left them when he died - namely Lot #61, the north half of Lot #36 and the north half of Lot #29 (total tract containing 405 acres, more or less). The 1855 deed in which Hannah (BAILEY) ARCHER, daughter of Robert S. & Betsy, conveyed her inherited interest in the property to DALE, mentions "with the exception of one acre on which is the family graveyard..." The deed does not specify on which lot the cemetery is situated.
This cemetery could easily be the same as the Sparks Family Cemetery, which is situated on Lot #61 just east of Snake River, on the south side of Hutcheson Ferry Road, and could conceivably date from that early period. One reported AYRES grave at Sparks (not proved) is said to date to ca. 1834.
