Colony residents raising funds for cemetery historic marker
COLONY — Colony Cemetery was placed on the state of Alabama’s Historic Cemetery Register in April and now town residents are spearheading a funding drive to get an historic marker placed on the site.
The cemetery is the 6th Cullman County cemetery in the state to be named to the Historic Cemetery Register.
The cemetery began as the burial site for Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church, built in 1858 as Mt. Pleasant United Episcopal Methodist Church. Even when other churches came along after Pleasant Grove, they, too, buried their dead at the cemetery. The cemetery includes the graves of ex-slaves Enoch Montgomery, 1824-1894, his wife Marie Montgomery, 1811-1914 and their daughter, Kizzie Montgomery Leeth, who was born into slavery in 1861 and died in 1956 at the age of 95. The oldest grave is George Griffith who died in 1885.
The Alabama Historical Commission’s (AHC) cemetery program provides assistance in identifying, documenting, registering, and protecting Alabama’s historic cemeteries. According to the AHC, “Historic cemeteries provide wonderful opportunities to study and honor our ancestors and our communities. These memorials to past generations can tell us about settlement patterns, family relationships, religion, lifestyles and craftsmanship.”
The cost to place a historical marker is estimated to be about $2,500. If anyone would like to donate, please send donation to P.O. Box 119, Hanceville, AL 35077, or contact Ethel L. Alexander, 205-265-9202; Barbra Marsh, 205 902-6454; Donnis Leeth, 205-838-1750 or Pat Ponders at 256-595-2778. All checks or money order donations for the Colony Historical Cemetery Fund Marker should be made out to Mrs. Barbra Morris.