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Eli and Eliza Buckner moved from Georgia to the Chapman community in 1851. Eliza died in 1857; when Eli died in 1861 he left a half-acre of land including their graves for use as a public burial ground. The Reverend Julius Caesar Alford Bridges of Georgia married Mary Ann Cosper in 1857 in Alabama. Some years later, they left that state with their ten children in twenty covered wagons and settled in Chapman. Bridges, a Confederate veteran, purchased the land on which the Buckner family and community cemetery was located for $100 in gold and later added more land. He served at the nearby Church Hill Methodist Church from 1880 until his death in October 1881. One of J. C. and Mary Bridges' eight sons, Francis "Frank" Bridges, married Mary E. Lowrie in 1884. Frank Bridges had many occupations during his lifetime. At one point he served as the first postmaster of the Chapman community. Bridges descendants continued to make their homes in the area. The Bridges Cemetery remains in service to Rusk County and the Chapman community. Among the pioneer families represented here are the Brooks, Futch, Garrison, Gossett, Jimmerson, Lowrie, Shumate, Snelgrove, Smith and Wylie families. In 1999 there were thirty-eight veterans buried in the cemetery. They served in a variety of U. S. and international conflicts including the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam. Others served the U. S. Armed Forces in peacetime. Unmarked graves in the back of the cemetery are believed to be those of slaves. The Bridges Cemetery is a chronicle of early Rusk County history. (1999) |
