Shades Valley Cemetery
Shades Valley Cemetery is a small cemetery on Pocahontas Road south of Bessemer near the Bent Brook Golf Course.
In around 1900, the original half-acre cemetery plot was deeded to a family which had settled in that section of Shades Valley. In 1928 the small Shades Valley community contributed funds to expand the cemetery with the purchase of an additional acre of property. That parcel was deeded to Green McKinney, Noah McAdory and Dave Bradford as trustees for the community. The McKinney and Bradford families died out, leaving responsibility for maintaining the site in the hands of the McAdorys. Over the years there has been a tacit understanding that residents of the community are welcomed at the cemetery.
Later the descendents of the McAdory family determined that the site had always been a family cemetery and that they could no longer afford to "give away" grave sites. A dispute arose in 1990 between the family and the estate of Vera Moultrie over plans for her burial at the cemetery. Circuit Judge Roger Halcomb issued an order that Moultrie, a descendent of one of the contributors for the 1928 expansion, could not be barred from burial there.
Later a group of community members named five new trustees and filed a lawsuit against the McAdory family in 2004 to settle the issue of control over the cemetery. The suit was dismissed without a hearing by Circuit Judge Dan Rogers.
Another dispute arose in 2008 when the relatives of Anderson Blevins made plans to bury him near his parents and other relatives in the cemetery. Edward McAdory, son of Noah, called the Jefferson County Sheriffs Office after learning that a grave had been dug without his permission. He had the grave filled and locked the gate that his family had installed at the site. Blevins was later interred at a single plot in Fairfield.
References
- Gordon, Robert K. (May 29, 2008) "Brother's body denied burial in family plot." The Birmingham News