Published Sunday, January 03, 2010

Posey cemetery owned, maintained by Western Baptist Association

By Jeff Bishop

The Newnan Times-Herald

The Posey cemetery is owned and maintained by the Western Baptist Association, but for many years they didn't even know it.

"We didn't even know we owned the cemetery until one day we were cleaning out the back room and we found something signed in 1979, and we asked, 'What in the world in this?'" said Dr. Wayne Jenkins, associational missionary for the Western Baptist Association.

One older member said he had a faint memory about the association owning the cemetery, located on Posey Road.

"We found out that in 1910 it was given to us to take care of it," said Dr. Jenkins. "In fact, we're supposed to be giving a cemetery report every year."

Once the association found out about it, they decided it was time to meet their responsibilities, Jenkins said.

"It's got our name on it, after all," he said. "We own it.

"So we started having cemetery cleanups," said Jenkins. "When we first found the cemetery, it looked horrible. But we researched it on our own and found out all about it."

Jenkins said some Luthersville-based members of the association got behind it, and "pretty soon we had guys out there with weed eaters and blowers. We did a lot of work last year. It was in bad shape."

Another cleanup is scheduled for Feb. 20.

"The weeds aren't so bad at that time of year," he said. "In the summer time, it's really hard."

He said the cemetery is special because of its deep history.

"It's pre-Civil War history, and that's pretty cool," said Jenkins. "Humphrey Posey was the first Baptist missionary to the Red Man."