Baggett descendants take great pride in 200-year-old family cemetery

John Quincy Adams

I always enjoy hearing from readers of the newspaper and this week I received a nice letter from Phillip Baggett, who lives all the way out in Baldwin, Missouri.

Phillip’s letter included four color photos of the Baggett Family Cemetery near Castleberry, and he noted that this cemetery is now 200 years old. Phillip said that this old family cemetery contains 43 graves, including the grave of his grandfather, James Augustus Baggett. James was the son of Richard Thomas Baggett, who was the first white child born in Conecuh County after this part of the world was opened up for settlement. Richard is Phillip’s great-grandfather.

Phillip also noted that the land adjacent to the Baggett Family Cemetery has been in his family since the early 1820s, and the family also has a land grant for a portion of the property that was signed by John Quincy Adams in 1823. In 1823, Adams was the U.S. Secretary of State. He would later go on to serve as the sixth President of the United States from 1825 to 1829.

Phillip also said that his brother, Stephen Baggett, and his sons, Craig and Rick, help maintain the cemetery along with Lamar Hodge, who has a landscaping business in Brewton. Over the years at the cemetery, they have planted white oak, swamp white oak, sawtooth oaks, a magnolia tree, three camellia bushes and several crinum lilies. The cemetery property also features a couple of natural hickory trees as well.

“We are trying to take good care of this old cemetery and honor our loved ones,” he said.

Many readers will be familiar with Richard Thomas Baggett, and when Phillip mentioned Richard in his letter, I could not help but think about the Richard Thomas Baggett historical marker that was once located on County Road 23. That marker, which was erected in 2001, “disappeared” a number of years ago and was probably stolen by some lowlife. As far as I know, that historical marker hasn’t been replaced.

For those of you, like myself, who never got to see this marker in person, here’s what it had to say – “Richard Thomas Baggett, March 30, 1817 - October 26, 1881: Richard Thomas Baggett was born and buried here on the Baggett family farm, NE 1/4 Section 4, Township 4 North, Range 10 East. According to early local histories, Richard, the son of pioneers Jesse Baggett and Zilla T. Godwin Baggett, was the first child born to white settlers in Conecuh County. Richard Baggett married Octavia Olivia Tippins and fathered four sons: James Augustus, Jesse Pinkney, George W., and Phillip Henry Baggett.”

I have to admit that I’ve never personally been to the Baggett Family Cemetery near Castleberry, but I’ve heard a lot about it over the years. It’s located not far from East Railroad Street and Red Wine Drive in the Castleberry area. Maybe one day soon, when the weather is nice, I’ll take a field trip down there to see if for myself.

In the end, I’d like to thank Phillip for his nice letter. I always enjoy hearing from readers, especially when it has to do with historical information about the county. As always, I’d like to hear from anyone out there in the reading audience with interesting information about the county’s history, especially old ghost stories, tall tales and local legends as well as information about old Indian village sites and mounds.