7. Pineville Cemetery
Located in the southwestern corner of Marion County, Pineville Church was founded in 1835 by Elder Andre Hood. According the local oral history, this has been an African American church since at least the early 1920s. This old wooden church, its accompanying church cemetery, and the larger town cemetery provide the last remnants of this community.
Buena Vista and Ellaville Railroad identified with a heavy black line. Source: Cram Map of Georgia, 1886.
The Pineville community cemetery includes the graves of many civil war soldiers. One of the oldest graves is that of John Mayo (1759-1842), who was a Revolutionary War soldier. Mayo, who had enlisted for six months, served as a private in the North Carolina Troops (Edgecombe County).
The post-Civil War Reconstruction era found Marion County lagging behind more economically diversified counties. Atlanta newspaper editor, Henry W. Grady called for the establishment of ‘The New South,’ a modernized region that would integrate with the rest of the nation and reject the antebellum, slavery-driven plantation system of the Old South. To capture that desire to integrate regions, the Buena Vista and Ellaville Railroad was built in 1884, as an extension to Buena Vista's already functioning railroad connection to the busy river city of Columbus (established in 1880). Pineville lay along a route that connected trains to Florida and Savannah. As legend has it, the Spanish moss that hangs from the trees in the area was brought to the area as packing material for the fruit being transported from Florida. This flowering plant hangs from tree branches and absorbs nutrients and water from the air and rainfall, and gives Pineville a distinctive, otherworldly feel. By the 1920s, the railroad had failed, and the community disappeared.
Submission composed by Shayna Hayworth, April 16, 2016.
References and Further Reading
Trish Elliot-Kashima, “Churches of Marion County Georgia,” October 18, 2015. http://www.thegagenweb.com/marion/church/churches.htm.Caldwell
Wilber W., The Courthouse and the Depot. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 2001.