Friendship Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Friendship Cemetery in Leon County. Now, some stories start with a grand declaration and a brass band. This one starts quieter than that.

It starts with rocks. Red sandstone rocks, set into the ground without a single date carved on them, marking graves so old nobody left behind a written record of when the burying began. That's where Friendship Cemetery takes you, right away, into the deep end of time.

This 9.7-acre cemetery sits inside what was once a 350-acre land patent granted to a man named Joseph Henson back in 1850. Henson set some of that land aside for burials, though the marker is honest with you: the exact year he first did that, nobody knows. Those undated stones keep that secret to themselves.

The earliest dated marker belongs to Josa Hood, born 1808, died 1870, and that gravestone is the oldest one with a year you can actually read. Everything before it is stone and silence. Now, the land hasn't been gentle to this place.

Vandals have come through. Wildlife has had its way with it. Livestock too.

All of them, over the years, taking their toll on what was laid out so carefully by the people who came before. But here's the thing about Friendship Cemetery, and it's the thing worth holding onto. The descendants and relatives of the citizens laid to rest here, they haven't walked away.

They keep coming back, keep making improvements, keep tending to a burial ground that is, when you get right down to it, a chronicle of the pioneers and families who settled and developed this corner of Leon County. Those red sandstone rocks don't say a word. But somebody's still listening.

What the marker says

This 9.7-acre cemetery is part of a 350 acre land patent granted to Joseph Henson in 1850. The year that he first set it aside for burials is not known as many of the earlier graves are marked only by red sandstone rocks without dates. The earliest dated markers is the 1870 gravestone of Josa Hood (1808-1870). Vandals, wildlife and livestock have taken their toll on this burial ground, but descendants and relatives of the citizens laid to rest here continue to make improvements and care for this site that remains a chronicle of the pioneers and families that settled and developed this corner of Leon County.