CLARKESVILLE CEMETERIES
Old Clarkesville Cemetery, Wayne and Jefferson Streets

Located on land donated by Colonel James Brannon in 1831, the old Methodist Church was built in the center of the present cemetery, and remained there until1881. The cemetery contains the graves of historically interesting people, including Jarvis Van Buren and his wife, Eliza. Mr. Van Buren, nephew of President Martin Van Buren, relocated to Clarkesville from New York to take charge of the Iron Works. In addition to designing some of Clarkesville's most beautiful buildings, Mr. Van Buren was instrumental in promoting apple growing in mountain communities, and founded the Georgia Pomological Society in the 1850s, an organization that sought to locate, name and classify desirable apple varieties. (See photo below of Mr. Van Buren with his apples )

Some other prominent persons buried here are Mr. and Mrs. Ezekiel Fuller, whose son, Captain W.H. Fuller, drove the locomotive Texas in pursuit of the General, captured by Andrew's Raiders in the famous Civil War incident that became known as "The Great Locomotive Chase"; Erwin Griggs, a long-time clerk of the Superior Court of Habersham County; Mr. Andrew Gailey, a carpenter who made most of the coffins in which the citizens of Clarkesville were buried; Richard Habersham, U.S. Congressman, nephew of Colonel Joseph Habersham; Matthew Rhodes and Mr. R. D. McCroskey, both Revolutionary War soldiers; Judge Cicero H. Sutton, Habersham County's first Ordinary, who practiced law in Clarkesville for 61 years. He was admitted at the bar at age 18, and was at the same time admitted to practice in the Georgia Supreme Court.

--from "Who's Who in the Old Cemetery," recollections by Mr. J.T. Pittard, October 27, 1927.