MAYS CEMETERY

MAYS-COLE-SIMPKINS CEMETERY Located on Parcel #37-09-27-0000-0950-0030 belonging to Gerald F. and Victoria D. Hughes of Jacksonville. Cemetery is approximately 100 feet from the river in a heavily wooded area. Entrance was made on the northerly edge of a cleared field, approximately 600 feet southerly of the bridge over Hastings Drainage Canal #17, formerly known as Graveyard Branch or Cemetery Branch. Cemetery is also approximately 175 feet south of the canal. See BRADDOCK CEMETERY. The headstones have been removed and some may have been bulldozed into river. [This could be a ‘proto-urban legend’ created by the fact that former owner Barton L. Peck had concrete bulkheads put in, and remnants of those on the shoreline and elsewhere on the property still exist.] The bodies were not removed, but remain buried here. We found remnants of stones, possibly used as tombstone bases, and a granite corner marker with an “M” engraved on it. Also, there is a concrete slab approximately 3 x3 feet that used to hold a granite marker that read “Old Mays Cemetery Established 1832”. This marker was last seen in the late 1980’s or early 1990’s, but was removed by persons unknown soon after that, for reasons unknown. Most of the information about this cemetery was provided by Mary Murphy-Hoffmann, a descendant of one of those buried there, and Lynn Hoffmann, her husband. The cemetery was for the founding families of the Orange Mills area. HASTINGS QUAD. We took two GPS readings, one approximately 75 feet in from the river, N 29^o 42.919 W 81^o 32.896, and one southeast of the graves at the edge of the cleared field, N 29^o 42.920 W 81^o 32.940. (Destroyed). Since the time of that survey done in 1999, the site has been ‘sanitized’ of any of the remaining stone fragments, base stones, the corner markers, and a piece of fence sticking out of a tree. A metal detector revealed that the tree had grown around an iron fence post. This was discovered February 2002 when Lot 4 was put up for sale. A meeting was held on March 27 on the site between the surveyors, new owners of Lot 4, the realtor, the Hoffmanns, and Carlis McLeod and Leroy Zetrouer of the Cemetery Task Force to determine whether or not Lot 4 is in the clear. It appears to be so. The Hoffmanns are purchasing a survey of Lot 3, which should be in the drawing stage now. The surveyors flagged several of the depressions and are putting them on the survey. They also dug down in several places and found brick foundations, and in one case a hand went through a wooden surface into space--possibly a coffin? Or a liner? Looking around the cleared area of Lot 3 you can see depressions all over the place. [NOTE: This cemetery is being ‘watched’ by the Hoffmanns.] See related story, Moving Monuments to Preserve History. HOME
LAST NAME	FIRST NAME	BIRTH	DEATH	COMMENTS (sic)
CALL	LUCY LEE	1856	1859
CALL	SARAH MAYS	1854	1871	ELDEST DAUGHTER OF GEORGE W. AND SARAH STARKE CALL. ADOPTED DAUGHTER OF A. H. AND ANNIE L. COLE.
CALL	SARAH STARKE	1833	1858	DAUGHTER OF R. G. AND SARAH B. MAYS
COLE	ARCHIE WOOLRIDGE	?	?	1 YEAR 8 MONTHS (Archie was 6 mos. old in the 1860 Census which was enumerated 6/9/1860.)
COLE	ANNIE L. LAMAR	1827	1871	DAUGHTER OF R. G. AND SARAH B. MAYS
COLE	ARCHIBALD HAMBLIN
COWGILL	LYDIA	1825	1871	DAUGHTER OF DR. ARNOLD AND MARY S. NAUDAIN. BORN IN DELAWARE. WIFE OF DR. C. A. COWGILL.
MAYS	ELIZABETH NANCY			see SIMPKINS
MAYS	ANNIE L. LAMAR			see COLE
MAYS	SARAH STARKE			see CALL
MCCALLUM	EUGENE	1821?	1859?	INFO PROVIDED BY MARY E. MURPHY-HOFFMANN
MCCALLUM	DAUGHTER	1859?	1859?	INFO PROVIDED BY MARY E. MURPHY-HOFFMANN
NAUDAIN	LYDIA			see COWGILL
SIMPKINS	ELIZABETH NANCY MAYS	1829	1862	DAUGHTER OF R. G. AND SARAH B. MAYS
Since the first wife is buried here, It is also probable that DR. CLAYTON A. COWGILL, 1826-1893? and his second wife, THROOP M. BABB, 1826-???? are buried here. Relatives of the Mays and other ‘old-timers’ recall at least eighteen graves being located here.

Last updated 5/28/2003

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