CHF Acquires Controlling Interest in Three Georgia Cemeteries

CHF has obtained controlling interests to three important historical Collier sites in Georgia. They are the Robert Collier Cemetery Lot in Upson County, the Vines Collier Cemetery in Oglethorpe County, and the Collier Lot in Greenwood Cemetery in Barnesville, Georgia.  Through CHF the undivided interests of several heirs to the properties have been consolidated.

1) The Robert Collier Cemetery Lot is located on what was once the Robert Collier plantation.  According to the deed,

Both Robert Collier and his wife, Martha M. Collier, are buried in the cemetery lot herein conveyed. Robert Collier died while residing at the plantation homestead on January 6, 1850, and his widow, Martha M. Collier, conveyed the cemetery lot to her son, Robert Marshall Collier, on February 16, 1870, by deed recorded in Deed Book “J,” page 180, in said Clerk’s Office.

The deed calls for 1 acre, more or less. It is unknown exactly how many persons are buried are in the cemetery, although the estimate is between 10 and 15. With the exception of one grave marked by a brick cairn, all other graves are marked with field stones. None of the markers are inscribed. The brick cairn is thought to be the grave of Robert Collier.

In 2013, CHF placed this monument at the Robert Collier Cemetery Lot.

2) The Vines Collier Cemetery was purchased by J. C. Collier in 1929, following a diligent search to locate the burial place of Vines, his great-great-grandfather. The grave is located near the house originally built by Vines Collier and later modified by the Howards. The deed describes the property as follows:

. . .all that tract or parcel of land lying and being in Oglethorpe County, Ga. known as part of the old W. T. Howard place with dimensions of (40′ x 80′) forty feet by Eighty feet, which is the old burial place of Vines Collier and his wife Sarah Williamson Collier and their son, Vines Collier, Jr. said lands are the same as mentioned in the will of Vines Collier filed for probate in 1795 in the county of Oglethorpe Ordinary Office– Said land being located on land lot #3 in Dist. # Bowling Green located in Oglethorpe Co. Same being sold to J. C. & D. C. Collier to forever remain as the burial place of Vines Collier & his family but no new graves are to be placed there, and bound on South, North and West by lands of Leila Howard and on East by Public road running by the residence of E . T. Howard.

When J. C. Collier purchased the burial site, none of the three graves were marked. In 1932, the Daughters of the American Revolution placed a marble marker on the grave of Vines Collier.

In 2001, the DAR re-dedicated the Vines Collier marker. As part of the ceremony, the late Ramon Collier placed markers on the graves of Sarah and Vines, Jr.

Correspondence between J. C. Collier and the Howards in 1934 outlined a plan to place granite posts at the corners of the cemetery.

1934_06_05_ltr-miss-frances-howard-to-jcc

For some reason, probably related to the Great Depression, the plan was never carried out. In 2015, CHF marked the corners of the burial site with blocks of gray Georgia granite inscribed with the letter “C”.

3) The Collier Lot in Greenwood Cemetery in Barnseville, Georgia is the final resting place for Isaac Cuthbert Collier, his half-brother, Robert Marshall Collier II, and several of their descendants. Inside the marble mausoleum are Isaac Cuthbert (I. C.) and wife, Sarah Elizabeth Means Collier, Jena Cuthbert (J. C.) and wife, Jessie Stephens Collier, Durward Cuthbert (D. C.) and wife, Annie Reid McGarity Collier. The Collier Lot also contains the unmarked grave of William Merrill Collier, half-brother to Robert Terrell Collier, who took his family to Texas sometime in the mid 1870s. William Merrill Collier was the uncle of Absalom Terrell Collier of Nacogdoches, Texas.

Here is a 2012 photograph of a group of Collier cousins in front of the mausoleum. The late Virginia Collier Dennis is the lady with the walker.

CHF is excited to assume responsibility for these three Collier sites. CHF has been seeing to the maintenance of the Isaac Collier Cemetery in Upson County and the John Vines Collier Cemetery in Oglethorpe County, Georgia.