Fish Creek Family

After storytelling near Rockmart I decided to drop by the Bethlehem Baptist Church cemetery in the Fish Creek community between Rockmart and Cedartown. Many of my relatives are buried there. 

When my grandmother, Lillian Ophelia Wilkerson Shaw, was only four years old her little brother Charles died at only three months. This little stone is at the Bethlehem Baptist Cemetery at Fish Creek in Polk County.

 

When my grandmother, Lillian Ophelia Wilkerson Shaw, was only nine years old her mother Eula Amanda Childers Wilkerson died at only 29. This stone is at the Bethlehem Baptist Cemetery at Fish Creek in Polk County.

Looking up the hill over the graves of Eula and Charles Wilkerson toward the crest of the hill and the resting place of Sarah Brewer Childers (my great-great grandmother) and her father Joel Brewer (My great-great-great grandfather. Bethlehem Baptist Cemetery, Fish Creek, Polk County, Georgia.

Sarah Chlders died just a few weeks before her grandchild Lillian Ophelia Wilkerson Shaw was born. She was buried beside her father Joel Brewer. It is said that Joel’s three wives — He was married to only one at a time, I hasten to add! — are buried next to him, but there are no markers. His first wife, Nancy Peek Brewer, was Sarah’s mother. Joel was the first Ordinary (now called Probate Judge) of Polk County. He donated land to Bethlehem Baptist Church for this cemetery.

The elevated view from Joel and Sarah’s graves must be nice looking east at sunrise, and it’s soothing to hear the whinnying of horses in the neighboring pasture.