Founders Cemetery
Founders Cemetery is located at 310 Ball Avenue in Tylertown, Mississippi, on land acquired by early settler Joseph Thornhill (c. 1765-1850). Joseph traveled to the Mississippi Territory in 1811 with his father, William, and his two brothers William and Robert from the Beaufort District, South Carolina.[1] The cemetery land is a portion of the 160-acre tract that Joseph bought on September 20, 1816.[2] Subsequently, this land was owned by Cullen Conerly (1808-1856) as early as 1839[3] and later owned by Ephraim Rushing (1798-1857).[4]
Founders became a burial ground for early residents of Conerly’s, later named Tylertown. Those buried at Founders were yeoman farmers, merchants, millers, and teachers, reflecting a timeline of 1835-1919. A number of families are represented: Ball, Collins, Conerly, Holmes, Lampton, Magee, Payne, Reagan, Reeves, Rimes, Rushing, Simmons, Thornhill, Tyler, and Welch. Veterans of the Revolutionary War (1), War of 1812 (2), and Civil War (6) rest here. Burials ceased in 1919. The Judith Robinson Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution restored Founders Cemetery in 2018-1019.
Founders became a burial ground for early residents of Conerly’s, later named Tylertown. Those buried at Founders were yeoman farmers, merchants, millers, and teachers, reflecting a timeline of 1835-1919. A number of families are represented: Ball, Collins, Conerly, Holmes, Lampton, Magee, Payne, Reagan, Reeves, Rimes, Rushing, Simmons, Thornhill, Tyler, and Welch. Veterans of the Revolutionary War (1), War of 1812 (2), and Civil War (6) rest here. Burials ceased in 1919. The Judith Robinson Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution restored Founders Cemetery in 2018-1019.
[1]Dorothy Williams Potter, Passports of Southeastern Pioneers, 1770-1823, Gateway Press, Inc., 1982, 279. The original Thornhill-Odom passport is in the private collection of Janice Brock, Tylertown, Mississippi.
[2]Tract Book, Walthall County, G.C. Ball, Surveyor, 48, Walthall County Courthouse, Tylertown, Mississippi. See also
Luke Ward Conerly, Pike County, Mississippi 1798-1876: Pioneer Families and Confederate Soldiers Reconstruction and Redemption and E. Russ Williams, Jr., Miscellaneous Legal and Family Records Pertaining to the Areas of Pike and Walthall Counties, Mississippi, Southern Historical Press, 1989, 83.
[3]Pike County, Mississippi, Tax Rolls, Series 1202: 1818-1902, 1839-Combined, 7. Accessed 18 June 2019.
[4] Conveyance Record, No.2, 323-24, Walthall County Courthouse, Tylertown, MS. The transfer of this property from Cullen Conerly to Ephraim Rushing was apparently a private sale as no government land sale record exists. However, the Conveyance Record cited above reveals that Ephraim Rushing’s 480 acres of land that passed to his wife Emelia Rushing in 1858 contained this acreage, suggesting that Ephraim bought it between 1843 and 1858. The county tax rolls cited above (3) reveal that Cullen Conerly paid taxes on the land until 1843; see also, Conerly, Pike County, Mississippi, 81.
[2]Tract Book, Walthall County, G.C. Ball, Surveyor, 48, Walthall County Courthouse, Tylertown, Mississippi. See also
Luke Ward Conerly, Pike County, Mississippi 1798-1876: Pioneer Families and Confederate Soldiers Reconstruction and Redemption and E. Russ Williams, Jr., Miscellaneous Legal and Family Records Pertaining to the Areas of Pike and Walthall Counties, Mississippi, Southern Historical Press, 1989, 83.
[3]Pike County, Mississippi, Tax Rolls, Series 1202: 1818-1902, 1839-Combined, 7. Accessed 18 June 2019.
[4] Conveyance Record, No.2, 323-24, Walthall County Courthouse, Tylertown, MS. The transfer of this property from Cullen Conerly to Ephraim Rushing was apparently a private sale as no government land sale record exists. However, the Conveyance Record cited above reveals that Ephraim Rushing’s 480 acres of land that passed to his wife Emelia Rushing in 1858 contained this acreage, suggesting that Ephraim bought it between 1843 and 1858. The county tax rolls cited above (3) reveal that Cullen Conerly paid taxes on the land until 1843; see also, Conerly, Pike County, Mississippi, 81.
