Many Blount County Families

Trace Their Ancestors

To New Bethlehem Cemetery

By Robert L. (Bob) Paul

Wednesday, February 11, 1885, was a raw day in Blount County, Alabama. The day started calm enough, but gradually it increased its furor, and by night fall, it appeared threatening enough to lay a light blanket of snow over Anderton (Cleveland). That evening, members of New Bethlehem Methodist Episcopal Church climbed aboard open wagons, rolled away from their homes, and out onto Five Points Road to attend midweek prayer services.

Augustus Ingram, J.K. Grigsby and Matthew Nelson reached the church house first. As Trustees, they built a roaring fire in the heavy cast iron stove by prayer meeting time. A glowing reddish hue replaced the normal pitch color of the stove's bulging center. It would be warm enough to chase away the frigid temperature they found inside on their arrival.

Each member had received a prosperous harvest in the fall and the frosty evening must neither dampen nor interfere with their midweek thanksgiving to the Almighty. Each wagon rolled by the adjacent cemetery and halted near the front of the small church house. Only a few weeks before the membership reported to the 1884 Quarterly Conference of the Methodist Church that "at New Bethlehem we have one acre of land on which we have a good church, well furnished."

A strong feeling of well-being had invaded each as the services ended. They retraced their steps through the blusterous weather that had escalated during the almost two-hour service. Long after the evening worship of the 11th, embers within the stove, it is believed, floated up the pipe and fell onto the wooden roof. Pushed along by volatile winds, flames, by midnight, engulfed the structure. The congregation gathered around, but could only watch the unfolding drama. Each articulated their wish that the snow now falling could have coated the roof a few hours earlier. There were no assets among them that could impede the tragedy.

It was a determined congregation that began rebuilding. C. B. Ingram, D. J. McCarn, John Blackwood, Dr. John Bellenger, W. Higginbotham and Brewton Green were appointed a building committee. However, by 1892 the congregation faltered and went in two different directions: one group tore down the recently finished sanctuary and moved it to the present location of Cleveland United Methodist Church, South. The other group built a structure, Foust Chapel, near Ben Bellenger's home. Later, that congregation also wavered, tore down the building and moved to Rosa. Only the cemetery remains as an endowment of the New Bethlehem mother church.

New Bethlehem Cemetery, since the fleeting years of the nineteenth century, lies as it did in the year New Bethlehem Methodist Church burned. Until they no longer survived, sons, daughters, mothers and fathers manicured the single acre with all the love and affection rightly deserved by those buried there. Apparently, burials there stopped around the turn of the century.

The family of Martha Sarah Huie and Reverend William Thomas Foust, with emotion and remorse, often memorialized her and their infant children, that lie to her left, with flowers brought from their own gardens. Today, descendants continue to stand watch with flowers from nearby florists.

Martha's brother Robert Huie preceded her burial there by a number of years. He died shortly after returning from the War Between the States. He was released to enjoy his final months at home by his Confederate Commander in Louisiana. His heroics brought special attention and consideration from the family as he was buried there. New Bethlehem has been correctly described as one of the oldest cemeteries in Blount County. The interment there of Robert Huie as a Civil War Veteran makes the site eligible for a national historical site.

Martha's mother and father, James and Nancy Huie are there as well, beneath a large protectorate of Blount County sandstone.

Other children of James and Nancy buried there, between their 1856 arrival in the county and the moving of the church, include Sarah Catherine Huie and her husband Adam O. Huffstutler, Mary Emily Huie, wife of George M. (Dallas) Tidwell, and Francis Huie and Josiah Tidwell. The burial places of Nancy and Margaret Huie are unknown. John Wilson Huie, the oldest son and his wife Margaret F. Foust are buried at the Blountsville Methodist Church Cemetery.

New Bethlehem Methodist Episcopal Church, after its burning, left no provisions for care of the cemetery. Many members of succeeding generations lost an awareness of the cemetery and their ancestors. Some did not, however, and they frequently cleared the underbrush from around both named and unnamed grave markers. As the 20th century raced toward an infant 21st century, some undergrowth and towering oak trees dominated the small acre landscape. Descendants of the Huie, Foust, Huffstutler and other families initiated, in 1997, a perpetual care of the cemetery.

The old roadway is still visible in places, but was excavated in part during the development of an adjoining Cherry Lane residential subdivision. The vision for the cemetery, in addition to its perpetual care, is landscaping and other cosmetic improvements. A large portion of Blount County's native population can trace their ancestors to New Bethlehem Methodist Episcopal Church and its cemetery. These include, from only the family tree of Alexander and Cena Louisa Daily Huie, youngest son of James and Nancy Barnwell Huie, Foust, Huie, Ellis, Huffstutler, Wilmon, Odoms, Adcocks, White, Johnson, Reed, Murphree, Bynum, Loftis, Bellew, Millican, Morton, Gilliland, Faust, Cornelius, Perrin and hundreds of others.

Known county descendants of John Wilson Huie, the oldest son and first Huie immigrant from Georgia to Blount county, and Margaret F. Foust, include Deavers, Heatons, Sharps, and Richies, Descending from Sarah Catherine Huie and Adam Orlando Huffstutler are many Blount County Huffstutlers. Both are buried at New Bethlehem.

Martha Sarah Huie and Rev. William Thomas Foust are ancestors to many Fousts, Wrights, Wigleys, Tidwells, Elrods, Jacksons, Tylers, Hortons, Dyers, Goods, Washburns, Loves, Weavers, Pesnells, Ridgeways and many more Blount County families. Add to these the descendants of others buried there, and the list is impressive for such a small church and cemetery that few remember, or know of, its existence.

The cemetery is an important link to Blount County's past. But, why weld out thoughts to particles of history? As one biographer noted, "we should cherish our past and question each event of the present: together, they mold our future."

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