In late 2004, several people from the Cobb and Langston families had gotten together, via email, with the idea of preserving the old Mount New Hope Cemetery. This Cemetery was now in the middle of a pasture and was being damaged by the cattle. We decided to put up a fence, clean out the brush, and clean some of the headstones.
Our first step was to contact the landowner about putting up the fence. The farm's owner, Mr. Childress, has been very helpful with access to the Cemetery and was happy to allow us in to fence the area.
The second step was to pick a day. We chose late February hoping the weather would be mild and some spring flowers would be up by then.
The next step was to contact the Alabama Historical Commission. All cemeteries older than 75 years are considered under the domain of the AHC. A permit is required for any work other than general grounds keeping. A good synopsis of what is required for a permit is found on the ACPA website. We applied for the permit early in January. The permit arrived February 24th.
Our crew gathered at the old antique mall on Chilton County highway 44 about 9:00 am on the 26th. We had quite a crowd. With the addition of a few late stragglers, there were 31 by count before the day was out.
(If there are any corrections to this list, please let me know!)
The Cobb and Langston family descendants would like to extend a special thanks to these people:
Mr. & Mrs. Frank Childress: Mr. Childress and his wife have graciously opened their farm to many of our family over the last several years and especially on February 26th when more than a dozen vehicles descended on their farm and across his pastures to do this work.
Luther Ellison: Mr. Ellison brought his tractor with a post hole auger to speed the installation with the fence. Without his help, the fence project would not have been finished in one day.
Ricky Mims & Carl Harkins: Mr. Mims is the Chilton County representative for the Alabama Cemetery Preservation Association. Both he and Mr. Harkins are involved with the Sons of Confederate Veterans and spent the day helping to clear ground and haul brush.
Charles Thomas: Mr. Thomas, of Eagle Eye Masonry, came to give some expert advice on the care and cleaning of cemetery stones. He is also working with Randall East to clean some other family headstones at other locations.
Randall East: Mr. East supplied many of the materials and led the effort to get the fence up. Without his knowledge and guidance, this task would not have been possible.
Barbara Cobb Rowe: Mrs. Rowe and her husband, Tom Rowe, cut, stripped, and hauled the posts that were used in the fence project from South Carolina. These Black Locust wood posts saves our group a lot of money and will very likely last much longer than anything we could have purchased. They also played a key role in getting the fence put up and generally making this workday happen.
Supported by Dennis Brooks