The ground at Shoal Creek Cemetery began to be used for burial by 1860, antedating the Civil War. The most recent burial is from 1936. During that period of seventy-five years, several pioneer families buried their patriarchs and matriarchs at Shoal Creek. After the Civil War, the cemetery was used by families which had been of Union sentiment and by their neighbors of Confederate loyalty. There are graves of two veterans of the Seminole Indian War of 1836-1837, three Confederate soldiers, and several graves of former slaves. Throughout much of this period, a Primitive Baptist church, organized in 1879, met for worship in a building immediately adjoining the cemetery. Altogether there are apparently sixty-six marked graves at Shoal Creek Cemetery, and twenty-nine have inscriptions. The known burials at Shoal Creek belong primarily to six family groups: the Findleys, Dowdys, Frasiers, Smiths, Machens and Harrisons.
Shoal Creek Cemetery Association is now incorporated as a non-profit organization in the State of Alabama. We are seeking to raise funds for the maintenance and upkeep of the cemetery. Contributions are tax-exempt, and should be sent to the treasurer of the Shoal Creek Cemetery Association: Nancy Roberts Wilson, 1301 Hickory Street, Albertville, AL 35950.
William Findley was born in 1788 in South Carolina and was a veteran of the Indian wars. He and his wife arrived on Sand Mountain from Georgia in 1853, accompanied by their two daughters Minerva and Lucy and their families. He was buried on the same day in May 1883 that his granddaughter Eliza Jane Isbell gave birth to a son, Dr. Arthur L. Isbell. The funeral procession was directed to pass by the house where his granddaughter was in confinement. William Findley far outlived his first wife, and in his old age was known by the old Appalachian honorific, Gransir Findley. His birthdate takes us back to the founding of the American republic.
William Findley's daughters married brothers. Minerva and her husband Isaac Dowdy were the parents of three sets of twins and three other children, before Isaac died back in Georgia at age 28, leaving his wife with five surviving boys and a daughter. Lucy's husband Jacob K. Dowdy became one of the early Primitive Baptist ministers on Sand Mountain. Minerva saw three sons go into the Union cavalry, and one was murdered while on leave in 1865, though the family had fled this community to take refuge north of the Tennessee River, in Jackson County.
Minerva (Findley) Dowdy (1818-1892).
The four surviving sons were prominent at Shoal Creek Church, with Scott numbered among the regular preachers. The birthdate of the twins Scott and Taylor fell on June 9, and this became the occasion of an annual reunion which drew many Dowdys, Frasiers and Isbells.
Taylor (1847-1928) and Scott Dowdy (1847-1943).
The two men married Frasier sisters, both of whom are buried here, with a daughter of Scott, and Taylor's second wife, and Taylor himself.
Mary E. (Frasier) Dowdy (1848-1883), wife of Scott Dowdy, holding one of their children.
Also interred at Shoal Creek is their youngest brother, Columbus Leander "Bony" Dowdy, who as a boy during the Civil War had to be held down to prevent him from going out to try to rescue the brother being killed by hostile neighbors within sight of the house.
Isaac Columbus Leander "Bony" Dowdy (1849-1918).
Levi Frasier, hailing from Tennessee, was another veteran of the Florida Indian Wars, as was his father-in-law Abner Minnix, who came from Kentucky but lost his life at an early date traveling on the Tennessee River. Levi and his wife Rhoda Ann are buried at Shoal Creek, as well as a son and three daughters, two of whom married Scott and Taylor Dowdy. Rhoda Ann had brothers in the Confederate army and another who went with the Union, and likewise one son who followed the Confederacy and another who served with the Union. Indicative of the many unmarked graves at Shoal Creek is the tradition that Joel E. Rogers (son-in-law of Levi Frasier) is interred here, along with two young brothers, a daughter and three grandchildren.
Rhoda Ann (Minnix) Frasier (1823-1904) and her grandson Jerome Burt.
Henry G. Smith, a native of South Carolina, entered the 640 acres surrounding the cemetery, and served in the Confederate cavalry from Alabama. A ravine in the neighborhood is pointed out where his family hid their livestock during the war, when raiders on both sides pillaged the community. At the turn of the century, his son Norman was a solemn but popular preacher at nearby New Canaan Missionary Baptist Church. Other sons married into the Taylor Dowdy and Lee Frasier families.
Francis Marion Machen, who was the uncle of Henry G. Smith, was another South Carolinian who served in the Confederate forces of Alabama. During the dangerous days of the war, he got his family out of harm's way by sending them back to the security of Talladega County, in south Alabama. While on furlough at home in Marshall County during the war, he was captured, and spent more than a year at a federal prisoner of war camp in Ohio. Before the war, he allowed Old Bethel Primitive Baptist Church, one of the earliest churches on Sand Mountain, to move its building onto his farm near Shoal Creek. Across the road from his house was the rock shelter where Minerva Dowdy's son-in-law Elijah Isbell would go into hiding until he could get across the Tennessee River and enlist in the Union army. Machen's daughter married "Bony" Dowdy, and a grandson married a daughter of Taylor Dowdy.
Grave of the Confederate soldier Francis Marion Machen, pointed out by his grandson, Frank Machen.
After about 18 months in the Confederate service, "Phonsey" Harrison was captured at the battle of Chickamauga in 1863 and sent to the prisoner of war camp in Rock Island, Illinois. There, eaten up with lice, he volunteered for frontier service with the U.S. army in Kansas, charged with guarding the territories against the Indians. Consequently, his grave is adorned with a U.S. veteran's marker, and also a Confederate tribute. Harrison is representative of a large migration to Sand Mountain following the Civil War. He did not arrive in Marshall County from south Alabama until about 1881, when he was ordained as a deacon at Shoal Creek Church. He was ordained to the ministry there in 1894. About 1925 he was the first in the community to light his home with carbide lamps. His large mustache and his opportune arrivals at supper time made his visits to the Arthur Isbell home memorable.
Civil War veteran John Alphonse "Phonsey" Harrison (1846-1929)
A bi-annual reunion in the Asbury community of Marshall County, Alabama, is jointly sponsored by the Shoal Creek Cemetery Association and the Old Bethel Cemetery Association, meeting on the second Saturday of June in the even-numbered years. The next reunion is to be held on Saturday, June 8, 2024, at 10 a.m., at Asbury School. These reunions raise funds for the two cemetery associations, and carry on a long-established community event.
The Dowdy Reunion in 1913, at the home of Taylor Dowdy, and across the road from the store which he operated near Shoal Creek.
We invite you to place your name on the mailing list for the reunion, by writing to the webmaster. If you have questions about history or genealogy associated with Shoal Creek Church or Cemetery, direct your inquiries to the webmaster. Write to Rev. Sherman Isbell, 3155 Lindenwood Lane, Fairfax, VA 22031, telephone 703-359-0192, RSIsbell@gmail.com. Rev. Isbell is writing a history of Old Bethel Church and Cemetery, and of Shoal Creek Church and Cemetery, and would welcome correspondence with families associated with either of these churches or cemeteries.
If you wish to visit Shoal Creek Cemetery, contact Rev. Sherman Isbell, 3155 Lindenwood Lane, Fairfax, VA 22031, 703-359-0192.
Known Burials at Shoal Creek Cemetery
Articles of the Faith of Shoal Creek Church
Old Bethel Cemetery Association
Osborn Cooper, grandson of Taylor Dowdy
This web site is dedicated to the memory of Osborn Cooper, one of many who faithfully cared for Shoal Creek Cemetery, and who asked the next generation to carry on the task.
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