Glenwood Cemetery is the final resting place of some of Yazoo’s most important people who helped shape the community in its earliest years.
Some of the deceased are the community’s first settlers and leaders. Some are a collection of colorful characters, almost meant for Southern literature. And a few are complete mysteries, with only a tombstone and a name to account for their time spent alive.
The legend of the Witch of Yazoo has gained notoriety among the “sacred city of the dead.” But there are a few that spark question, controversy and interest with stories of family legacies, local myth and secrets that only the dead can tell.
Let’s go beyond the Witch of Yazoo and into some stories that prove truth can be stranger than fiction.
The Unknown Crypt
Nestled under tall oak and cypress trees is a brick, above-ground crypt, that immediately grabs the attention of visitors and locals alike. One side of the crypt is occupied, but the adjoining side remains empty. Exposed, the inside of the empty side is filled with brush and limbs. The tomb itself has no family name or symbol of any kind. Bricks are beginning to crumble from the burial structure, but the mystery behind it stands firm within Yazoo history.
The occupied side has the marker of Robert Tinsley Lambeth who was born on March 18, 1842 and died on April 3, 1901. His marker also indicates that he was a private in the 18th Mississippi Infantry of the Civil War. The 18th Infantry Regiment, organized in June, 1861, at Corinth, recruited its members in Yazoo, Coahoma, Madison, De Soto, and Hinds counties.
There are records of a prominent Lambeth family in the area who owned a plantation. However, it has been difficult to uncover any connection with Robert Tinsley Lambeth with that particular family.
Also, there are no records of a probated will or estate of Robert Tinsley Lambeth in the Yazoo County Courthouse records.
The late John Ellzey, a local historian, claimed that the burial plot belonged to George W. Crump, who endowed the local school system with his estate when he died. Crump is memorialized in Yazoo City with the Crump Fountain on Main Street.
According to Ellzey’s notes, “(Crump) built the crypt on the hillside for himself and a slave.” However, Crump is buried on the other side of Glenwood Cemetery with a prominent monument. There is no explanation as to how Robert Tinsley Lambeth was placed inside the tomb as his final resting place.
It has also been difficult to locate any record as to whether Crump built the crypt.
But an even bigger mystery is why whoever was intended for the empty side was never buried there.
The Hancock Brothers
Buried side by side are the Hancock brothers, a duo who have left many scratching their heads surrounding their ancestry. For one, there is an error on their marble slab graves. Second, their claim in relation to one of the country’s founding fathers doesn’t add up to history.
John H. and George M. Hancock claimed to the grandsons of forefather John Hancock. The flat stones across their graves are in scripted with being the grandsons of “the first signer of the Constitution.” Was it meant to read, “signer of the Declaration of Independence?”
But even if that inscription could be explained as error, the claim itself poses many questions. John Hancock reportedly had no children to carry on his name.
John Hancock and his wife Dorothy had two children during their marriage. Their first child, Lydia Henchman Hancock was born in 1776 and died ten months later. In 1787, their son, John George Washington Hancock, was ice skating on a pond in Milton, Massachusetts, and died as a result of drowning when he fell through the ice at age 8.
It has also been reported that John Hancock’s personal papers were purchased for a thousand dollars and “suppressed.” Did those “suppressed” papers reveal something that even historians are unaware of?
Lasting Impressions
Glenwood Cemetery is filled with a number of monuments, tombstones and other structures that draw an air of mystery or interest around them. Perhaps those buried beneath have an intriguing story or perhaps it is a tale of tragedy.
Regardless, it’s stories that have grabbed the attention of others years after their passing.
The grave of Amy Saunders leaves many of its viewers spellbound by the intense stare from the almost lifelike statue above her plot. Little Amy died at only three years old after a two-day battle with an illness. A stone statue was made from her photograph, and there is such detailed likeness that “it shows each link in a tiny chain she wore around her neck.”
Another marker that draws attention to itself is the grave of Mildred Twellmeyer, who died in 1908 at the tender age of 3. Her grave is watched over by a statue of an angel, known as “the crying angel.”
And no one can argue that the late S.G. Gaston let a disability get the best of him. He left a reminder on his grave marker to any who may have doubted it when he died in 1909. “Though maimed for life by the loss of both hands, he never asked for help but had the grit to work and make his own living.”
And then there are the graves that leave nothing but a name. Historic newspaper articles state that a number of mothers who died during childbirth and lost their babies are buried in each other’s arms. There is also an article that claims an elderly woman is buried with a package of love letters she had saved for years from her husband.
There are more stories within the gates of Glenwood; more tall tales and legends and a few true stories that resemble a remarkable work of fiction. The mysteries and stories found within the historic cemetery remain a part of Yazoo’s history; those histories of lives, deaths and the memories beyond the graves.
