The Northside has several historic cemeteries with gravesites of city founders, early settlers, slaves and community leaders who are gone but not forgotten.
Living Northside has noted five that may interest you.
1. Lebanon Cemetery. The mostly African-American burial ground was originally called Lebanon Baptist Church Cemetery. The church was co-founded by the Hembree family, who were early settlers, during a time when landowners and their slaves worshipped together. Many of the individuals buried in the cemetery were born during slavery but lived to see it abolished.
11215 Houze Road, Roswell. (The church is now located on Crabapple Road.)
2. Pleasant Hill Cemetery. Burl Hembree and Alex Hembree, slaves of the Hembree family, were ordained as preacher and deacon, respectively, by the Lebanon Presbytery in the late 1840s. The two, along with other slaves, organized Pleasant Hill Baptist Church. Burials started in 1855 when they built a log cabin to worship in and established the cemetery.
770 Old Roswell Place, Roswell.
3. Old Roswell Cemetery. The site is the original burial ground for Mount Carmel Methodist, a log cabin church at that location that later became Roswell United Methodist Church. The church grew and moved to Mimosa Boulevard. Notable names in the cemetery include Mansell, a family who owned property in Roswell and Alpharetta.
Woodstock Road at Alpharetta Highway, Roswell.
4. Roswell Presbyterian Church Cemetery. Rev. Nathaniel Pratt, a pastor from Darien (former home of Roswell King, founder of the Northside city), organized the church in 1838. Numerous family members of Roswell founders are buried in the cemetery across the street. Most notable is Barrington King, Roswell King's son and president of Roswell Manufacturing Company.
755 Mimosa Blvd., Roswell.
5. Founders Cemetery. Roswell's first public cemetery is the burial site of several of the city's founders, including Roswell King and John Dunwody. The cemetery has unmarked graves, among them the grave of Luke Mounar, a former slave to James Bulloch known as Daddy Luke. He died at age 105 in 1905.
Sloan Street near Walnut Street, Roswell.
6. Sandy Springs United Methodist Church Historic Cemetery. The cemetery is next to the church on Mount Vernon Highway and abuts Arlington Memorial Park cemetery. Wilson Spruill donated five acres and a log cabin around 1850 to establish the church. The Spruill family immigrated from England and settled in North Carolina, eventually migrating to Georgia. Several family members are buried in the cemetery.
6 Mount Vernon Highway N.E., Sandy Springs.
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