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Archiver > FLGADSDE > 2007-12 > 1197737688


From: Dale Cox <>
Subject: Re: [FLGADSDE] Charles Browning in the Shelfer Cemetery
Date: Sat, 15 Dec 2007 08:54:48 -0800 (PST)


Angela,

Fascinating, thank you for sharing. You are right, this was a fairly common arrangement during the war. Quite often these men picked up weapons and fought because they were on or near the firing lines during battles. In those days, the cooks, etc., were usually right with the rest of the company instead of at some area in the rear.

Did your ancestors leave any written accounts?

Dale


----- Original Message ----
From: Angela Cassidy <>
To:
Sent: Saturday, December 15, 2007 10:48:27 AM
Subject: [FLGADSDE] Charles Browning in the Shelfer Cemetery

Yes, I know about Mr. Browning. He was a man servant to my great-great-grandfather, William Hardy Shelfer. He accompanied Grandaddy Shelfer when he went off to the Civil War and cooked and washed for him. Well to do Southerners had such accommodations. The Sons of Confederate Veterans put the flag on his grave. I have told them he was not a soldier, but they feel anyone who endured the hardships and the danger is someone to be honored for his service. I cautioned that his family might not appreciate a Confederate flag on his grave, but he must not have any family around here or they don't object, because the flag still stands.

I have photographed and indexed this part of the Shelfer Cemetery and it's on the Gadsden GenWeb page.

I meant to write Richard when he said he found the Butler Cemetery and tell him I didn't think it was in that triangle because there are only the Shelfer Cemetery white and Shelfer Cemetery black in that area, as far as I know, and several generations of my family are buried there. It has never been called the Butler Cemetery. However, I got busy and did not get off an e-mail in time, so Richard made a trip for nothing. Sorry, Richard.
Angela Boynton Cassidy

Dale Cox <> wrote:
Richard,

Fascinating. Does anyone know anything more about this man?

Dale


----- Original Message ----
From: Richard White
To:
Sent: Friday, December 14, 2007 11:02:09 PM
Subject: Re: [FLGADSDE] Butler Cemetery, was Re: Gadsden County Cemetery Survey performed in 1999


Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose. And... sometimes it doesn't pay
to play the game.

I went to this Gadsden County Butler Cemetery this (Friday) afternoon.
It appears to be essentially an African-American annex to the Shelfer
Cemetery. One of the graves is marked:

"CHARLES BROWNING
AS A SLAVE AND FREEDMAN
A FAITHFUL SERVANT
HIS WHOLE LIFE
TO
WILLIAM H. SHELFER
AND FAMILY
1837-1904"

This grave also has a Confederate flag beside it, so I take it that Mr.
Browning accompanied Mr. Shelfer to war as well...

There are ZERO graves marked Butler so far as I could see. However, a
Black man named Giles Butler was listed immediately next to William
Shelfer on the 1870 Gadsden County census... and he or some of his kin
might account for the origin of the naming...

George Washington Kemp was an immediately adjacent property owner to my
3-great grandfather Levi Butler, and his widow Mourning Kemp (and
daughter Georgia Ann Kemp who married Levi's son by his second wife,
James D. Butler) were listed fairly close to William Shelfer in the 1860
census for Gadsden County... but all and all this cemetery seems not to fit.

Richard White
Tallahassee, FL

Richard White wrote:

>I found it. It's in the small triangle between SR12A/Kemp Rd and Big
>Oak LN and Leslie Lewis Rd. I can't go today... but I may just head up
>that way tomorrow.
>
>I'm not sure why SR12A was named Kemp Rd, but I have an intuition... no
>"actual facts'... that Levi's 1st wife, my 3-great grandmother, was
>probably a Kemp.
>
>RW
>
>Huey Brantley wrote:
>
>
>
>>If Angela would go to maps.google.com
>>http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=30.572903,-84.537735&spn=0.370675,0.6427&z=11&om=1
>>and zoom to the location. Then upper right corner click "link to this
>>page". Send that address to Richard it will take him straight to it.
>>
>>-h
>>
>>Also, I'm working on a little project to map cemeteries and overlay them
>>on Google Maps, MS Virutal Earth and Yahoo!.
>>
>>Richard White wrote:
>>
>>
>>>I must be terminally confused...
>>>
>>>This is the first listed, not the second, Butler Cemetery... but it
>>>isn't particularly near Hinson as I thought... I would call it SW of
>>>Concord. It is, as I thought, in a section of land adjacent to the one
>>>Levi Butler's land was in... but I thought it was to the west of his
>>>land, and it's to the south (which also puts it south of Jesse Hair's land).
>>>
>>>I don't have GPS capability. But I guess I can figure a way to convert
>>>the coordinates to a map location...
>>>
>>>RW
>>>
>>>Angela Cassidy wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>Richard,
>>>>I have a copy of the 1999 Cemetery Survey performed by Gadsden County officials for the Department of State to compile their list of statewide archaeological sites so developers don't build over them. It was developed by a postal carrier, a forester, and one other person who was out and about the county's roads. They got everything, even one grave right out the back door of someone's house.
>>>>
>>>> If anyone wants a copy of it, let me know. It's a large file, but I have individual pages if you just ask for one cemetery. It lists a lot of cemeteries and individual grave sites found way back in the woods or at old homesteads, so give me a family name to look for and I can send only that one page. It is my goal to hunt these down one by one and photograph them.
>>>>
>>>>I will send the Butler cemetery to your personal e-mail address. It has the GPS coordinates, so if you have GPS capability you can drive and walk to it. All of these sites have GPS coordinates and Section, Township and Range. The Butler Cemetery you are looking for says it's neglected and the number of graves is unable to be determined. I have not been there yet.
>>>>Angela
>>>>
>>>>Richard White wrote:
>>>>
>>>>Since my 3-great grandfather Levi Butler lived nearby I figure that he
>>>>might be buried at the Butler Cemetery near Hinson (he lived between
>>>>Concord and Hinson in NE Gadsden County). I understand that there isn't
>>>>much to see there, but I would like to see it anyway... I just never
>>>>have found any usable directions or a map pinpointing this obsure
>>>>cemetery's location. Can anyone help me out on that?
>>>>
>>>>Richard White
>>>>Tallahassee
>>>>

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