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Pleasant Grove cemetery, shelter recall old ways
No grass in this cemetery The cemetery has graves that date back to the 1860s and is one of only a handful in the area that still maintains a sandy, grass-free grounds. Grass and weeds in most rural cemeteries used to be kept chopped and pulled and the dirt swept clean with brush brooms but over time it became more popular to let the grass grow like a lawn and to cut it with mowers and trimmers. Shelter covers child's grave There is also a grave shelter in the cemetery, another reminder of old times. The tin-roofed enclosure with gingerbread trim covers the grave of a child, 3-year-old Pugh Perdue Rotch. The child's parents are buried in the same plot but their graves are not covered. Grave shelters can differ greatly. The one at Pleasant Grove is typical of those found in small, rural cemeteries. A fancy, 1858 brick structure in north Clarke County represents the more elaborate form of grave shelters, or houses.
Some researchers say grave shelters are direct descendants of house-like structures called lychgates found in cemeteries of the British Isles that date back to the Seventh Century or earlier. Theories are that immigrants from England, Wales and Scotland brought the idea of cemetery shelters to the American south. Church established 1858 The Pleasant Grove Baptist Church is adjacent to the cemetery and was constituted on Oct. 17, 1858. The first building stood about a half a mile away from the present church and served as both a church and a school but it burned and a new one was constructed from unpeeled pine logs. Charles Finch said his grandmother, Mary Jane Rotch Finch, remembered attending services in the newly built church. She recalled that insects- "sawyers" as she called them- made so much noise eating the bark from the logs that the congregation could hardly hear the preacher!
Once called Tattilaba The Pleasant Grove community is situated along County Route 3 southeast of Coffeeville. It was originally called Tattilaba, for the creek of that name that runs nearby. The Tattilaba Post Office served the area in the late 1800s and early 1900s. At one time there was a little village near the church. There were two stores, two cotton gins and a Masonic Lodge. Today, descendants of the early settlers who rest in the sandy cemetery and in others not visible from the county road, live in the quiet community.
Source: Historical Sketches of Clarke County, Alabama.
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