Durden Cemetery

Newspaper obituaries for Lucinda B. Harvey and Hortense Ferrell establish that the cemetery off Alexander Rd. in the west half of HS Lot 71, where their inscribed tombstones are found, is the Durden Cemetery. A sign at the entrance to this graveyard in October 2001 proclaims it “Derdine’s Cemetery.” The veterans’ graves registration of 1940-41 is clearly in error in giving for Durden Cemetery a section-township-range location far west of Crawfordville and deep in ANF — in low flatwoods and bay territory not far from Sopchoppy River — and contradicting the document’s narrative direction that does fit the actual location.

The plot has a NNE-SSW dimension maybe 60 yards at the ESE end but narrows to a point at the WNW end next to Alexander Rd. It is quite open but has a dozen nice dogwoods and a few loblolly pines. In neglect it has become somewhat weedy. All gravestones or visible indications of graves are in that wide ESE end—all the way across it. The 17 or more gravestones are somewhat scattered across that wide end. Some dates of death inscribed are as recent as 2002. The southernmost stone in the plot has an inscription done humbly in cursive that may be one of the most copious in the County:

Florina Stevens / was born in Decatur County Bainbridge Georgia July 26 1892 came to Florida 1898 6 years old in 19-11 she married to James Tampa in Wakulla County Crawfordville Florida March 3-3-61 she departed her life / I amagin she sings this hym. The days is past and gone the evening shades appear.