Photographer friend Cathy Howard has asked me a couple of times if I have made it up to the old Clarkesville cemetery. Finally, I dropped by a few weeks ago and took some photos, but the cemetery had been hit by a terrible storm. One of the well-over hundred year old hardwoods had fallen and damaged several of the graves. I returned this past weekend and while storm damage is still visible, it is quickly being cleaned up. The cemetery is really an interesting place and I’ll go back for yet another visit—maybe at a different time of the day.
The grave of Jarvis Van Buren and his wife, Eliza. is located in the cemetery. Van Buren is the nephew of US President Martin Van Buren. The family moved to Clarkesville, Georgia, from New York in order for him to take charge of the iron works plant in this area. This probably explains the elaborate fence around the family plot. In addition to designing some of Clarkesville’s most prominent buildings, Van Buren was instrumental in promoting apple growth in the region. There are other historically significant graves located here—many contain the remains of Revolutionary and Civil War soldiers.
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