Hidden Magnolias

As we often do on Sunday afternoons, we went for a drive today and visited Acworth, GA. Driving around the various roads in the historical area, we stumbled on this beauty. The sign out front reads "James Lemon Antebellum Home ca. 1856." Immediately I was taken by it. I had to find out more. A few things I learned: James and Mary Davenport Lemon purchased 800 acres of land and built a small frame house.  Just before his marriage, their son, James Lile Lemon, expanded the house to a Carolina style, modified Plantation Plain house. After the Civil War in 1890 the two story porch was replaced with with neoclassical Doric Columns we see today. Why didn't this house get burned when Acworth was burned? Well, for 5 days in June 1864,  Maj Gen William T Sherman took over the homestead and stayed during the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain in June of 1864. Some sources say that after he left, it was used as a hospital. Capt.,Co.A,18th Ga.Inf.Regt.-CSA. One of...

Saturday was absolutely a perfect day, filled with activities I love: meeting other people interested in family history, searching for a missing graveyard, a cute little Southern Town, and big houses. It all started when a family member of the Maddux family reached out to me to help her "straighten out" an old family graveyard's documentation on Find a Grave. The documentation and the information found on Internet was incorrect. Through our conversation it was decided finding the cemetery was the best way to confirm dates. So a day was planned and off I went. I arrived early, so I ran over to the nearby Methodist Cemetery. Established in 1805, it has some of the oldest graves in Jasper Co. I was looking for my 3rd great grand uncle: Jeremiah Pearson.  As soon as I entered the cemetery and gave a scan across, I saw what I knew in my heart was Jeremiah's grave -- above ground tombs under a huge cedar tree. Up close with the help of cheap foil, I...