Category: Stories Beneath the Stones
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A Tribute to George W. Corley
Ria has collected significant historical items from Alexandria, DeKalb, and Tennessee, emphasizing the value of ordinary moments over celebrity. This story of George W. Corley highlights his life’s changes, community service, and resilience through hardship, illustrating his legacy of integrity and joy, encouraging reflection on how to navigate life’s challenges.
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Lifting the First Stones, Lifting Their Names at Seay Chapel’s Black Cemetery
Three slightly obsessed souls, a homemade tripod, and a hill of almost-forgotten burials: at Seay Chapel we scrub stone, lift names, and fight gravity, proving a small crew with a crazy dedication to the dead can still change how a community remembers its own before they vanish beneath silence.
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William Bell Bates – Alexandria’s ties to the Allison Murder’s – Part 3
After the public hanging of Jo and Teek Brassell on Billy Goat Hill in Cookeville on 27 March 1878, Putnam County slowly returned to normal. After the conclusion of Bates’ second trial in March 1879, DeKalb County made its slow progress back to normal. The interest in both cases died down, and those intimately involved…
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William Bell Bates – Alexandria’s ties to the Allison Murder’s – Part 2
I was handcuffed to Capt. Armstrong. Having to unharness the mule, he found it difficult to get around while being handcuffed to me, so he took the handcuff off of his wrist and put both on me; then he took the harness off of the mule and I went ahead of him into the stable,…
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William Bell Bates – Alexandria’s ties to the Allison Murder’s – Part 1
While on the run, he stole a mule and rode it to Gallatin. He sold it shortly thereafter. Boarding a train, he traveled to Louisville, Kentucky. From there, he boarded a boat and traveled to Covington, Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio. He eventually made his way to Indianapolis, Indiana where he stayed for a while.
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The Livingston Tubb House & Gilleylen Letter
Livy Simpson’s shared family memories include historical documents and images about significant Alexandria figures. The collection features items related to Col. James Tubb’s Smith Fork house, a 1964 description from an interview, family photographs, and Gilleylen letters detailing H. S. Gilleylen’s experiences in Alexandria in 1868. Additional content covers the homes of H. Lester Simpson…
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The Unmarked Legacy of Malachi and Julia Berry: Love, Service, and Struggle in Post-Slavery Tennessee
Buried in the quiet soil of Seay Chapel Cemetery lies the nearly forgotten legacy of Malachi and Julia Berry—an enslaved man who may have fought for freedom in the Civil War and the wife who spent decades battling for his recognition. Their story weaves through war, injustice, and resilience, revealing a powerful glimpse into the…
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What is in a name? Stories beneath the stones…
The Seay Chapel Cemetery, once a gathering place for worship and remembrance, is now a resting place for potentially 500 African American individuals. Some lived their entire life in slavery, others were born into slavery and found freedom in their lifetimes. Others were born free, but lived in a world that did not always treat…
Alexandria Historic Cemeteries District 