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Lanier Slave Cemetery, 46-2 Summary Report, page 6
photographs of their many land transaction deeds are included in the Summary Report of the Lanier 46-1 Cemetery, along with the accompanying CD-ROM delivered to the Army offices for this effort. Ann Auld, who sold the land to William H. Lanier, must have been an heir of Nancy Auld, who first obtained the land from the government after the 1816 Chickasaw Indian Cessation. The land of that cessation was systematically surveyed for two years before being offered for sale by the government to the squatters who had for the most part already been living on or farming the land for several years - usually from the time of 1806 - 7, as part of the area called the “Sims Settlement” of white encroachers on Indian lands. February 2 of 1818 was its first legal date of sale. The Lanier brothers generally held the title to the land until after the Civil War, with some part of it being sold in 1856 due to a bankruptcy declaration. However, the majority of the Lanier brothers' lands were retained until they began selling most of it in 1867, after the war. The 1860 census (last one with slaves, before the war) Slave Schedules showed that there were 89 slaves owned by the Lanier brothers. Only 8 of the slaves were attributed to William Lanier in 1860, while another 14 showed ownership by his brother Burwell Clinton Lanier. Isaac Alexander Lanier owned the remaining 67 slaves. It may be that many of them and their ancestors from an earlier generation are buried in this cemetery. As stated before, it may well be that some of their children also returned to this cemetery for their final resting place. Since there are no tombstones, their names are lost in antiquity, unless subsequent land and probate record investigations may reveal some of the names of the slaves and former slaves. At this time, they remain a mystery, lying in a highly protected and undisturbed area of the old Lanier plantation. Prepared by John P. Rankin, August 28, 2005 6 - (1989)