Oglesby Cemetery

Oglesby Cemetery, Oglesby Plantation Cemetery or Old Slave Cemetery are various names given to a small cemetery of mostly-unmarked graves located within the Tannehill Historical State Park in Roupes Valley. There are several limestone fragments serving as markers. The only inscribed stone lists "Jos. H. Stroup, 1862".

The site lies alongside a wagon road used to carry Tannehill iron to Montevallo. It was re-discovered by Boy Scouts in 1969. Research done in the early 1990s on behalf of the park indicated that the cemetery dated to the 1850s, was associated with the Oglesby Plantation and was the resting place of "more than 400 slaves" who labored in the cotton and iron industries nearby. These claims were repeated in later publications. Recent research by descendants of Sabert Oglesby, II, listed as owner of the plantation in some publications, calls those claims into question.

The 40-acre tract on which the cemetery stands was part of a total of 120 acres granted to a George Oglesberry in 1858. George was probably the older brother of Sabert as the spellings of their names were interchanged in family records. There are no records of either brother or any other family member owning or employing slaves. The figure of 400 seems to have been transferred from an estimate of the total labor force needed to operate the Tannehill Ironworks at its peak of production, rather than a direct survey of gravesites, which is likely to be closer to 50, and perhaps as few as 25 in the approximately 100-foot by 100-foot area.

The "Old Slave Cemetery" is marked as such on maps of the park and an interpretive sign repeats the disputed claim of 400+ graves.

References

• Bennett, James R. (1999) Tannehill and the Growth of the Alabam Iron Industry. Montgomery: Alabama Historic Ironworks Commission. ISBN 0967445507
• Helms, Russell (2008) "Tannehill Ironworks Trail" in Birmingham: 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles. 2nd edition. Birmingham: Menasha Ridge Press. p. 245-9. ISBN 0897329783
• Oglesby, Terry (January 2009) "Oglesby Cemetery". Bibb County, ALGenWeb - accessed March 14, 2009
• Oglesby, Terry (February 9, 2009) "New research on local slave cemetery." printed in the March 2009 edition of the Tannehill Trader