Elizabeth Coley was one of the younger daughters of
John A. D. Coley, Esq. of Pulaski county. I believe they had a large
Plantation somewhere along the Cary Straight or Long street.
Haywood Hughes was the son of Harden Hughes, who aquired
his land through the land lottery in the early 1800s. His brother was Hayden
Hughes who was the father of Dudley Hughes.
Haywood was born December 30,1814. Which made him 11
years older than Elizabeth. They married sometime around1840-41. Their oldest
living daughter was born in1842. Elizabeth joined his church (Jeffersonville
Baptist) before they were married. They lived on Main Street in a house
that is now owned by Mitch Foster. It is located across from The Church of
God, A white picket fence enclosing the back yard is visable from highway
80. They had ten children.
According to the 1860 census:
Martha -18 yrs born 1842
Josaphine-16 yrs born 1844
Mary-14 yrs born1846
Elimina-13 yrs born 1847
Henrietta-10 yrs born1850
Haywood Jr-8 yrs born 1852 (The only son that lived)
Their daughter Cherry Ann does not have any dates on her
headstone.
Augustas died while Elizabeth was 6 months pregnant with
her third son. They both lived another 6 months. Elizabeth died July 13,1853.
Three days later her infant son died. Although he was six months old he was
not given a name.
After her death Haywood married Elizabeths older sister,
Elimina,(whom Elizabeth had named a daughter after) They went on to
have three more daughters: Ellen, Ida, and Laura. She also joined his church
right before they married.
Haywood lived until 1880. He requested to be buried
beside Elizabeth.
Elimina lived until 1896 and was buried at Jeffersonville
Baptist Church. Along with one of her daughters.
It is curious to me why They would choose to bury their
children so far away (4 miiles) from their home and their church. Maybe this
place in the woods had a special meaning to them. Maybe it is a much larger
cemetary than it looks. They took great care with it. It is surrounded with
crepe myrtles and daffodils which still bloom 150 years later. The headstones
are beautiful, and must have been very expensive back then. Anyway. I hope you
find this as interesting as I do.