By Stephanie Johns
Staff Writer

Members of the Morgan County Resource Preservation Advisory Board discussed progress made toward collecting maps and information from county residents.
Gail Wade said she spoke with Ed Prior about Apalachee. She was told that Prior already had provided information to Tara Cooner, Senior Planner with Morgan County Planning and Development. Cooner said Prior did tell her where things were located and that she will look for an aerial map so that they can put the information onto it.   
Sara Lynn McHugh said that collecting information about Rutledge may be a challenge because of a fire that occurred there. According to a plaque hanging outside of Rutledge City Hall, the fire occurred Jan. 18, 1988. 
Ona Nunn shared a map of Bostwick that she had drawn. She said she also plans to buy two pictures from Eugene Swain.
Carol Cross will continue collecting information about Godfrey.
Wade said that a history class from the University of Georgia will visit after Christmas to work on a project on the old Buckhead jail, which she said was built for about $600.
Cooner then passed out thesis packets prepared by Joshua Jack Riley, a graduate student who had asked Cooner to serve on his thesis committee. The topic of his thesis: historic cemeteries in Morgan County.
Cooner said she was concerned about “major inaccuracies” and “inflammatory language” included in the thesis.
This prompted a discussion of historic cemeteries and their care.
Wade said in the past she received calls asking that something be done about those cemeteries. She said she would tell the caller she would be glad to coordinate cleanup efforts if the caller would recruit workers. She added that she never heard back from those callers.
“People want it done but they don’t want to help do it,” she said.
Cross said they used to have cemetery cleanup days.
Cooner shared that the majority of cemeteries were family cemeteries that have been abandoned and neglected as the families move away.
McHugh pointed out that so many people are lawsuit conscious these days.
Cooner then passed out copies of a document titled “Geophysical Survey at Prior Cemetery, Morgan County, Georgia” by Daniel P. Bigman dated May 2012.
She said the survey found up to 21 unmarked graves from five generations of the Prior family as well as slave burials adjacent to the cemetery.

Printed in the November 22, 2012 edition