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Farming For A Better Future, page 26
171 Liberty Cemetery The Liberty Cemetery is located in western Colbert County near the Mississippi border at the intersection of State Line and Liberty roads, in Section 9 of township 4S, Range 15W, southwest of Cherokee. Liberty Cemetery has several unmarked graves and most likely dates to earlier than the first marked grave - that of Ruben Rodgers (1817-1881). According to the 1880 Agricultural Census, Rodgers (or Rogers) owned a small farm of about 30 acres by the time he passed away. While there are few marked graves at Liberty Cemetery, many of those that are marked and recorded belong to African American farming landowners. Landowning farmers interred here include the Alexander family headed by Brad C. Alexander, who was born in 1886 and owned a farm in the Allsboro area from at least 1930 to 1940 and passed away sometime after 1958. Brad Alexander's mother, Laura (1850-1932), his wife, Lular E. (18891960), and his brother, Bids (1874-1943), lived with him in 1920 and 1930 and are buried at Liberty Cemetery as well. Fannie Carter (1872-1960) is also buried at Liberty Cemetery. Her husband, Dude Carter, owned a farm on Cherokee Road in Margerum in 1940. In that year, Bids Alexander was a boarder in their home. Harvey Fant (1849-1923) owned a farm in Cherokee in 1920. Robert Hordges (Hodges) (1844-1919) owned a farm in the neighboring town of Tishomingo, Mississippi in 1910. Clarence Ed Tires (1874-1965) and his wife, Minnie Rogers Tires (1886-1964) owned almost 150 acres of land west of Cherokee in 1935 when the TVA surveyed them about the acquisition of about 20 acres of land for the Pickwick Reservoir. The Tires (sometimes spelled “Tiers”) lived in a five-room house and tended to mules, horses, cattle, hogs, and chickens on their farm as well as grew corn, cotton, sorghum, peaches, sweet potatoes, and hay. They also rented out land to two sharecroppers - Gertrude Morgan (Tires' daughter) and Richard Carter. By the time the TVA interviewed them, they had paid off their mortgage, possessed no debts, and made a good income from their farm. Despite losing some of their land to the reservoir, the Tires still had 65 acres of cultivable land and had no intentions of moving or making their tenants move. The Tires were one of the fortunate families that did respectively well during the Great Depression and were little affected by the TVA's reconstruction of North Alabama. (Below) 1930 Federal Census Excerpt Showing Brad C. Alexander Owning a Farm (National Archives and Records Administration via Ancestry.com) (Left) Excerpt of Handwritten TVA Questionnaire for Ed Tiers (Tires) (Family Removal Files, National Archives and Records Administration via Ancestry.com) (Below) Excerpt of Typewritten TVA Case Notes for Ed Tiers (Tires) (Family Removal Files, National Archives and Records Administration via Ancestry.com) (Bottom) 1940 Federal Census Excerpt Showing Clarence E. (Ed) and Minnie Tiers (Tires) Owning a Farm (National Archives and Records Administration via Ancestry.com) KEY * Indicates a Historical - Non-Extant Resource - (4554)