The Green-McCraw Family Cemetery of Ball Ground, Georgia

As with most counties in America, Cherokee County has several family cemeteries. Back in the days of the early settlers of a county, in the age of pre-refrigeration and automobiles, families of moderate means would have their own private family graveyards. The Green-McCraw (later misspelled McGraw) family cemetery is one such place.

The first time I went to this property I was also in search of an old family homestead. I didn't find one, but I did find their cemetery. Findagrave.com lists 24 memorials at the site, but when I counted the tombstones, I counted well over 40. The reason for the variance is that many of the stones are so old, the writing on them is no longer legible.

Amos Green, the patriarch of the local Greens moved to Cherokee County from North Carolina. He was born in 1778. His son Jesse Green, a medical doctor, was living in Cherokee County by the 1830s, both of them, and the rest of their immediate families are buried there.

Amos Green

Jesse Green

George McCraw

George McCraw, the father of the local McCraw family, was born in 1809 and moved to Cherokee County from South Carolina around 1840.

George McCraw owned the land where the local ford was. He owned Land Lots 302, 303, 346, 347, 374, and 375

Jesse Green owned adjacent Land Lots 348, 349, 371, 372, 421, 422, 423, 300 and a great deal more land.

The reason the cemetery is named after both is because they were the dominant families of the area in terms of proximity and wealth.

In my opinion, McCraw was the origin source of the name of the Wildlife Management Area McGraw's Ford WMA. The 1890 Topographic map shows the spelling of the ford as McGrau's. The location of the old ford was literally less than a quarter mile from the location of the family plot.

McGrau's Ford shown in relation to the McCraw-Green family cemetery.

The graves of Amos (b. 1778) and Elizabeth Green (b. 1779) are still attended by local family.

It was here in the McCraw plot, I first uncovered the designation of Idiot on a grave marker. Nancy Green was the daughter of Amos and Elizabeth.

The gravestone reads Nancy Green, Idiot. Nancy (b. 1823 d. 1850)

Later I discovered the term idiotic along with deaf and dumb, blind, idiotic, insane, pauper, or convict as categories of people on census data from long ago.

Idiots. —Those so defective that the mental development never exceeds that or a normal child of about two years.

Imbeciles. —Those whose development is higher than that of an idiot, but whose intelligence does not exceed that of a normal child of about seven years.

Morons. —Those whose mental development is above that of an imbecile, but does not exceed that of a normal child of about twelve years.

— Edmund Burke Huey, Backward and Feeble-Minded Children, 1912

This 1850 Cherokee County census shows Nancy Green as an idiot. If you look in the far right column, the census asks whether or not the resident is deaf and dumb, blind, insane, idiotic, pauper, or convict.