Sunbury Cemetery



Road signs still direct the way to Sunbury, and "Old Sunbury Road: still marks the colonial pathway on maps. But no vestige of that thriving coastal port remains. The homes, the wharves, the shops are all gone, replaced by upscale homes reflecting the continued desirability of the site. The only reminder of those earlier days is Sunbury Cemetery, the permanent home of earlier citizens.



Old Sunbury Road

This marker reads: "The highway entering here is the Sunbury Road which once served as an arterial vehicular route from the interior of Georgia to the Town of Sunbury, a former leading port and educational center, located 11 miles to the eastward on the Midway River. The stretch from this area to Sunbury was opened about 1760. In the early 1790's the thoroughfare was extended to Greensboro via Swainsboro and Sparta. The old way was noted for its elevated course and few stream crossings. The route declined in importance when Sunbury lost commercial significance."



One of seven administrative divisions within the sparse colony, St. John's Parish lay from the Medway River to the South Newport River. In 1752 the Dorchester Society secured land from the trustees and began to move there from their farms in Dorchester, SC. Previously, they had migrated from Massachusetts. As Congregationalists, they constructed a meetinghouse to serve as their place for conducting public business, social intercourse and religious worship. The Midway Meeting House remained the core of their community despite their scattered farms and the growth of the town of Sunbury and others.

As trade steadily increased in the parish, the need for a port required the organization of the town of Sunbury in 1758. From the land grant of Mark Carr, a respected Georgia colonist and soldier, the town was laid out. The planned port was laid out with wharves, town lots and three town squares. Soon it rivaled Savannah in shipping and wealth. The location at the mouth of the Medway River with a deep harbor on the intracoastal channel was ideal. The high bluff and expansive view of river and marsh drew residents. Handling trade from the colonial interior, the port also conducted sizable business in the Caribbean and with the northern Colonies.





This marker stands at the entrance to the cemetery. It reads:

"SITE OF
SUNBURY CEMETERY
IN TOWN OF SUNBURY
FOUNDED 1758.








The citizens of St. John's Parish were early supporters of the opposition to British rule. As the colonies moved toward a separation, Georgia began to experience deep divisions. Prior to the 1776 Declaration of Independence, St. John's Parish had urged Georgia to join in the colonial revolt. When the dominant Savannah Leaders stalled, St. John's Parish sent Sunbury's Dr. Lyman Hall to the 2nd Continental Congress as a non-voting delegate from Georgia. When Georgia joined the rebels and sent the official delegation it included Dr. Hall, Button Gwinnett, who frequented Sunbury from his home on St. Catherine's, and George Walton, who would be paroled as a British prisoner during the conflict at Sunbury.

Their patriotic service was typical of the revolutionary sons and daughters of the parish. Soldiers and statesmen defended the town against two British attacks on Ft. Morris, constructed for Sunbury's defense. After its fall, they were paroled as prisoners of war at Sunbury until British withdrawal from Georgia in 1782. To honor their early and steady support of America's cause, St. John's Parish was combined with St. Andrew's and St. James by the Georgia Constitutional Convention. The new county was named "Liberty." Sunbury served as county seat until 1797 when legislation was enacted to construct a building for court, jail and records of Liberty County in Riceboro, to the southwest.

Many who had left their homes during the British occupation did not return. Other factors combined to affect the town's rapid decline. The opening of the interior of Georgia led to more farmers living on their land, rather than European-styled towns. This shift of population was only partially offset by Sunbury's growth as a vacation area for wealthy inland planters. The hurricane of 1804 frightened many, but the furious hurricane of 1924 was far worse. Its ruin of much coastal land for immediate planting combined with the shift to cotton, rather than rice, as a principle crop of Georgia permanently eroded the population, Most significantly, the railroad made its appearance, linking towns and ending the dominance of water trade.

In 1788 the Sunbury Academy had opened, serving as a site of area education for many years. Its principle founder and teacher, Rev. William McWhir, D.D., led it to become a highly reputed institution of learning for area youth. The Sunbury Baptist Church was organized in 1810 and held services into the 1830's. Around this time Sunbury is described as having an Academy, a Baptist Church, twenty houses, two stores, and three offices with a population of only 150 permanent residents. By 1841 the post office was closed. In 1864 troops of General William T. Sherman burned the Sunbury Baptist Church as a signal to Union vessels that the area was secured.

This historic marker sits near the entrance and reads as follows:

SUNBURY CEMETERY
"In this Cemetery are buried men and women whose lives contributed much to the early history of Georgia.
Among these were the Rev. Wm. McWhir, D. D. and his wife. The Rev. Mr. McWhir was for 30 years Principal of the famous Sunbury Academy. Born in Ireland, September 9, 1759, he was graduated from Belfast College and was licensed to preach by the presbytery of the City. He died in Georgia, January 30, 1851.
Some burials were made in this plot in Colonial and Revolutionary Days, but most of the markers had been destroyed before 1870's."



The last traces of the town were snuffed out by the economic troubles of post-war years.

From the beginning of the town's history, public burials were made at a community cemetery located at the southeast corner of Church Square.

Sunbury Cemetery housed the remains of members of the Midway Congregational Church, Sunbury Baptist Church and others. While no complete interment records are known to exist for the cemetery and its boundaries were beyond those at present, some sense of integrity remains.

Most of the markers were gone by the 1870's. Of those remaining, some thirty-four, the oldest is dated 1788 and the most recent, 1911. Two iron fenced family enclosures are carefully arrayed with neatly lined markers for the Dunham family and the Fleming-Law families. The most famous tombstone is a full-length marker for the Rev. William McWhir. The graves of Josiah Powell and Samuel Law, notables of the town of Sunbury, are also marked. Throughout the remainder of the cemetery, headstones and markers are scattered amidst rectangular depressions of other graves.





The entire cemetery was fenced and gated about 1980.



For more information on historic Sunbury,
visit the museum at Fort Morris
State Historic Site




The text of this page was taken from the brochure "Sunbury Cemetery" which was prepared by Sherry Hearn, Georgia Department of Natural Resources for the St. John's Parish Chapter, The National Society of Daughters of the American Colonists, with the assistance of Georgia Southern University, 2000.

All photos taken by Faye L. Dyess



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