There isn’t that much left today to show that those pioneering families had once carved out a place to raise their children in this northeastern corner of Chilton County, except for their graves.

Atop a small hill in the center of Jumbo lies the Mullins Cemetery, one of this county’s most historic cemeteries. Buried here are county pioneers with surnames we still know today: Mullins, Vines, Marcus, Young, Waggoner, Giles, and Cox. The cemetery holds the remains Sarah Crockett Goodgame, who was either the sister or cousin of the famous Davy Crockett. The grave of William Vines is here. Mr. Vines was one of the men named by a legislative act to establish Chilton County, which was in those days called Baker County. William Vines’ grave lies near the grave of James Vines, who served in the Confederate Army.

Three other Confederate Army veterans rest in the cemetery, Henry C. Young, Oliver Mullins, and William Marcus. J. L. Marcus, also buried here, served in the Confederate Home Guards in a company led by a Capt. Mullins.

On November 1st 2008, members of the Chilton Cemetery Association, descendants of people interred in Mullins Cemetery and volunteers from the community met together at the Mullins Cemetery for the first scheduled workday. The main goal today was to clear the underbrush and trees that were choking the cemetery and disturbing the graves. We also hoped to find some of the missing headstones and identify new graves. On all these counts we were successful. Volunteers were instructed to call Kat to take photographs when any new stones or graves were discovered.

Pictures from the November 1, 2008 workday

	The chain saw gang didn't waste any time and got right to work.
	While Charles Ellison and the chain saw crew roared, Braxton and crew grabbed the cut brush and hauled it off to a pile well out of the cemetery.
	It was amazing just how quickly the brush cleared out
	This area cleaned out a lot faster than we had expected.  We're going to confer with the land owner about the few large trees that were left.
	It wasn't long before the area where J. L. Marcus and his wife Jane were buried as well as the older Mullins area was cleared out.
	The rakers came in right behind the chain saw crew. Between the two crews discoveries were made!
	While Kalynne cleared the leaves off the rock mound covering the body of a small baby, Hunter and Caleb replaced the rocks that had become dislodged due to tree growth.
	Kalynne found the footstone for James Mullins. We also discovered that a large rock we thought was the original marker for James Mullins was actually placed to mark the head of the rock pile grave.  But it was only a taste of what was to come.
	When the cry went up that something else had been found we were all excited! There was no inscription but we were hopeful that we'd find the rest of this marker.
	You couldn't even see the Mullins fence from here before, now you can walk through to it!
	Cleaning headstones in the fenced Mullins area. L-R, Marie Smith, Susan Bennett, and Tye Southard.
	Marie watches as Connie Bainbridge and sister Susan Bennett clean the Oliver Mullins headstone.
	Margie Knox Brown, who attended the Mullins Academy, sits in the golf cart with Gerald "Buck" Cost.
	The chain saw crew wasted no time  beginning to clear the next area of the cemetery.
	Ray Vines and his son clear the area where their ancestors are buried.
	When you want to get some work done get some Chilton County men!
	While removing a large stump and root ball from an old downed tree Jeff found more pieces of the marker mentioned before.  This is David Dennis wiping away  the dirt covering the stone.
	It was the lost tablet headstone for Martha L. Mullins! The headstone reads: Sacred to the memory of Martha L. Mullins Wife of James A. Mullins Born January 29th 1827 and departed this life May 7th 1855 Age 28 years 3 months and 8 days Roger Vines told us he remembered seeing it upright and showed us where it was originally. Martha L. Mullins was the first wife of Rev. James A. Mullins who helped found the Clanton First Baptist Church. This is a very tall tablet stone!  You only see two of the pieces in this image.  There's a third piece of as well.  It also has a maker's mark which we'll photograph in detail when we clean the stone.  This one we will not clean in the cemetery but will bring it home so we can do it properly and then replace it.  There is no water at the cemetery and for this one we'll need a lot of water to soak the stone for cleaning.
	Then the lost headstone for Elizabeth Waggoner was found!
	While cleaning the concrete chair Candy Masters, one of the CCA directors, discovered that it had been carved to resemble wood. You can see the lines on the seat of the chair to simulate planks of wood, on other parts of the chair wood grain had been carved into the concrete. Hunter Bennett's grandfather told us that years ago this chair had been stolen from the cemetery. Some years later they got a call that it had been found in a house that someone had recently purchased. He also said the chair had been made by Oliver Reid Mullins.
	Then something unusual began to emerge.
	It was just below this mess of rocks. When we cleared more of the leaves and dirt away we determined that this was a square rock cairn that someone has destroyed. The previous picture appears to have been a top for it that someone had thrown off. Numerous visitors to the cemetery today told us of grave robbers having been active in the cemetery. This cairn wasn't recorded on the 1979 survey that we can tell. There may be writing on the other side of the "lid." The location of both the previously recorded graves of Martha Jones and an "Infant Smith" are currently unknown, neither were identified today.
	This unmarked footstone was discovered and left in place. We aren't sure if there's a grave where it lays or not.
	The last time I tried to walk through this area I could barely move and my cane kept catching on the undergrowth!
	This piece of a headstone was found laying on the grave of Ruth Estell Marcus (number 6 on our survey). Extrapilating back gives a birthday of either March 11th or 12th 1873. (Depending on leap year being counted or not) UPDATE! This is part of the headstone for Willie Waggoner.  His headstone was missing when we did our original survey.  Wille is number 23 on our survey. The headstone is about 30 feet away from where it was originally placed.
	The graves of Emmett, Nancy, and L. M. Cox, no longer hidden by a thick growth of trees.
	Look at how beautifully clean it is now! Unfortunately since our first survey of this cemetery someone has destroyed two of the headstones seen on the left in this image. They were cleaned with bleach which whitens a stone temporarily, but destroys it within a couple of years. The new veteran's stone was placed by the Chilton Cemetery Association previously to replace the original headstone for William Marcus which is broken.
	Just when we thought we had discovered all the Mullins Cemetery surprises Jeff turned over a piece of shale and found that it had been hand cut with M M Ellison. This name was not recorded in the 1979 survey of the cemetery.  If anyone knows who this is please let us know. UPDATE!  I spoke to Bennie Ellison who knows a lot of his family lore we met him at the cemetery and showed him this rock.  He told us that while John Ellison (buried at Ellison Cemetery) was away fighting in the Civil War his wife, Mahala Mary Ellison died.  He was given leave to go home and bury his wife and make arrangements for his children.  Bennie said that the family story always was that she was buried in the Mullins Cemetery.  Finding this rock proves his family lore was correct.

Thanks to our members and volunteers!
H. C. "Moon" Mullins, April Mullins, Mary Mullins, Mark Reditt, Roger Vines, Hunter Bennett, Caleb Hoyt, Braxton Austin, Marie Smith, Kalynne Scott, Charles Ellison, David Dennis, Glenn Littleton, Ray Vines, Ricky Mims, Allison Hadnett, Gerald "Buck" Cost, Jeff Reece, Connie Bainbridge, Susan Bennett, Tye Southard, Candy Masters and Kat Reece.

We also received $200 for the Sarah Crockett Goodgame headstone fund and $40 for our general fund!

If anyone has any information on the headstones discovered today, or if you are interested in volunteering for our next workday, please contact Kat at

Second Workday - April 25, 2009

	The first order of business was to put up the new historical marker. Holding the sign is Craig Bennett Jr. (left) and Jeff Reece (right), Hunter Bennett who raised the funds as his Eagle Scout Project for the cemetery marker has his back to the camera affixing the sign to the post. Also shown are John Bryant and Chase Minor.
	Hunter and the historical marker.
	Cody McCord (left) and Ricky Minor (right), members of Scout Troop 259 out of Clanton looking at the historical marker
	While the Scouts cleaned, Jeff started in on Henry Young's headstone. What you see him chopping on was the roots of the tree that had made the headstone base off level. He cleaned the old mortar off the pieces and put them back together (after they were cleaned of course).
	While the raking was going on, Heath Bennett cleaned headstones for Jeff while he re-leveled the bases.
	Chase Minor standing beside the fieldstone grave marker he found while cleaning. Locating this gravestone helped us identify another of the unknown graves in this cemetery.
	Craig Bennett Jr, Hunter's father (left), and his grandfather, Craig Bennett Sr. (right), stain the benches made by Hunter and his father.
	Hunter supervises while Talon Below resets footstones.
	Talon and Hunter watch while Jeff cleans the excess mortar off Ruth Estelle Marcus' headstone. In the background, Kalynne Scott and Braxton Austin work on cleaning one of the Vines' headstones.

Cemetery and Headstones Before and After