Sarah Rebecca Olds

GEDCOM Note

The Old Sardis Cemetery - Richland Area, Pike County, Alabama
The earliest marked and dated burial in this cemetery is 1856.
The latest marked and dated burial in this cemetery is 1904.
From Family Records, Thomas Alexander "Tom" BARR died 11 Nov 1923. Thus, Sardis Cemetery was in use between at least 1856 and 1923.
The fenced in area of this cemetery is approximately 1 acre.
Only about 30 % of this area has marked graves.
There are indications of un-marked graves.
NOTICE: Additional details and dates relating to Sardis Church were provided to this author in an email dated 17 Oct 2003 from John Barr PUGH (descendant of Thomas Alexander "Tom" Barr and Mary Eleanor NEWBERRY Barr, who both buried at Sardis Cemetery). On 18 Oct 2003 and based on the 17 Oct 2003 email from John Barr PUGH, this author applied significant updates relating to the history of the Sardis Methodist Church this web page,
The OLD Sardis Methodist Church and Cemetery: The church was once located, and the cemetery is located about 3 miles north of the Richland Baptist Church on the western side of Pike County Road 83. In May 2002 James E "Pid" and Lamar STEED told me that Brenda STEED currently lives where the old SARDIS METHODIST CHURCH once stood. From the STEED's I learned that the old Sardis Church was originally located about

300 yards from current day Pike County road 83 in what is now woods, briars and brambles. After a new road was constructed (current day Pike County road 83) the Church was moved from its old location to about where Brenda STEED's home is now located. From the 17 Oct 2003 email from John Barr PUGH, I learned that this first move of the Church building probably occurred in the 1880's. In March 2003 and with the help of John Phillip JOHNSTON of Brundidge, Alabama, I was able to locate the cemetery. The cemetery is back in the woods about 200 hundred yards from current day Pike County road 83 and I would estimate it to be about 200 to 300 yards north of Brenda STEED's home. These woods are very thick and last summer no one wanted to try to go back there saying, "you would have to use a bush axe, etc to get there." They also said the cemetery had not been maintained in many years and now it is in a thicket of mature trees. Several of the locals mentioned that the rattlesnakes were abundant and expressed anxiety about me trying to get back there.
In the 17 Oct 2003 email from John Barr PUGH, John said that his mother lived near and attended services at the Sardis Church until after WWII [1945] and that the Church was being used for family reunions as late as the late 1950's. John Barr PUGH also mentioned that his grandmother was the organist at Sardis before her death in 1928 and added that "The building is impressive from the standpoint of the beams and pegs".
When the old Sardis Church was sold and moved sometime in the 1970's (source of 1970's: 17 Oct 2003 email of John Barr PUGH, which listed his source as, "Ms Pickard, the historian ofthe AL/West Fl Methodist Archives at Huntingdon [College] in Montgomery"), the building was eventually sold to a farmer; a Mr. Buddy Cox who moved it into Barbour County and just inside the western city limits of Clio, Alabama on the north side of State Highway 10 where it still stands as of March 2003. Basically, Mr Cox uses the building as a

barn. After the Sardis Methodist Church Cemetery became dormant, some of the Sardis Metodist Church members were buried at Richland Baptist Church Cemetery and the Clay Hill Methodist Church Cemetery.
This author's great grandfather, Albert Howard NEWBERRY, transferred from Clay Hill Methodist Church to the Sardis Methodist Church in about 1907, but he and many relatives are buried at Clay Hill, while some other relatives, mostly the family and descendants of Albert Howard NEWBERRY's brother, John Andrews NEWBERRY, are buried at the Richland Baptist Church Cemetery.
The Old Sardis Church is not listed with the Churches in the Heritage of Pike County, Alabama book, although I think I saw it mentioned in one Family Ancestry article.
In an August 2003 email from Brenda Steed she said (excerpt slightly edited), "I am Brenda Steed that lives on the land where Sardis Church once stood. The church property was bought from the Alabama/Florida District Methodist. It took us some years to finally get the property in our names. There had to be several signatures before we could actually buy the property. ~ We had plans on remodeling the church for our home. Finances prevented that and we sold the church to Mr. Buddy Cox. The church was constructed with wooden pegs. The wood was so hard it took cement nails to go into it. Hindsight is always 20/20 and I do wish we had kept the church. It was just not feasible then. ~ The cemetery is actually still owned by the Alabama/West Florida Methodist Conference. It can never be sold. Our quest for purchase of the land was dependent upon if the cemetery was on the property. Since it was not, we were able to purchase the land and building."

You can click on the thumbnail tombstone images below, in order to see a larger image.