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mcc-jrr_611-007

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Green Grove Cemetery, 61-1 Summary Report, page 7

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It has been reported that the cemetery was used exclusively for African Americans who were too poor to erect tombstones. However, there may be some consideration given to the fact that this area was apparently the center of a small community in the northwestern portion of the arsenal. This statement is based upon the many indications of a settlement on the slope to the east of the small creek and west of Anderson Road. There are numerous stones to indicate old chimney sites and other remnants of housing, as well as the dam across the creek to form a mill pond. It may well be that the earliest phases of the cemetery were used by a white community, before the post-Civil War population shifts in the late 1800s and early 1900s left the area as predominately African American. While there is no proof of that possibility, it should not be entirely ruled out, as there is a lack of data either way. Further research of the early history of land ownership prior to the Civil War offers significant clues to burials in the cemetery. Margaret Matthews Cowart, in her book OLD LAND RECORDS OF MADISON COUNTY, ALABAMA, shows that the first owner of the SW/4 of Section 14, T4-R2W, was Gross Scruggs. 7 - (2160)    

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