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I ran across this little cemetery shortly after I moved to Norcross, GA in May of 1998. It is on Lawrenceville Highway near the intersection with Jimmy Carter Blvd. It sits right next to Georgia Power. These pages contain a rough map of the graveyard, pictures of all the graves and the text that appears on them. I finally visited the library and found a little information about the family, mostly William Nesbit. If you have any information, I would be happy to add it here. Email me. |
sign 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 tree
Please note that some of the text on these markers is illegible and some is mispelled. I have duplicated it here as exactly as I could.
Here are a couple more views of this cemetery.
A couple of decendants have been kind enough to email me some additional information. Penelope writes:
Hello Laura,And from Sue Ellen:Found your information on William Nesbit's Cemetery on the Nesbitt/Nisbet Links.
My father, Noye H. Nesbit is responsible for the sign that is at the cemetery. My husband painted it for him. There are a couple of mistakes that need correcting, but hasn't been done because we live in Delaware and don't get to Georgia any more.
At the time, we took the birthdate of William off the tombstone. Later we looked in my father's records and he had the correct birth date, 20 SEP 1788 in York SC. His father Joseph, died about a month after William was born.
Also, the road William worked on (1813-1814) was "Old" Peachtree Road that runs through Norcross, Doraville and to Bolton, where the water works is not stationed. My great grandmother Nesbit said they originally named it "Pitch Tree" because there was a tree they got pitch from for their boats at the Chattahoochee River. As far as we can tell there were no peaches grown in Georgia at that time. Peaches were first introduced about 20 or 30 years later.
The death date is correct. Since they are more recent when erecting a stone, they are usually the right one.
My father lived to be almost 95 years old when he died in 1989. He had been collecting family history since he was 12 years old. And he told the very same story many times over the years, and it was always the same.
Contact me if I can be of help.
Dear Creator of the Nesbit Family Cemetery webpage,THANK YOU SO MUCH for posting this webpage. I am one of the many descendants of William Nesbitt and knew that this little cemetery existed, but living in New York, I can't exactly visit it easily. I am very happy to see the pictures and get the information from the tombstones that you included.
I thought I'd let you know that most of the folk buried in the cemetery are not his children. You probably could tell this by the dates. On the gravestones, "A. C." stands for Alvin Crawford, a son. The name that you couldn't read, what you wrote as "Marriz...ne Craig" should actually be daughter Parizade, if you can believe it. She married Pinkney Craig. The Nesbitts gave a few of their children some unusual names. Another child was William Ira, the one who died at 42. I actually have not studied this family, and hence I can't tell you who all the other people are. They seem to be grandchildren.
Because you asked, I will copy a long segment about William from The Ancestry of Andrew Alexander Nesbitt compiled by Clarence Ralph Nesbitt. This is an unpublished manuscript presented to the D. C. D. A. R. in 1956. It's quite well documented. What is most interesting is that William's father Joseph came over from Ireland when he was young. He was one of four brothers on some Nesbitt estate, but unfortunately he died right after William was born. Years later, William searched for his father's relatives and found them through some lawyer writing letters for him. When the family back in Ireland heard about him, they were all thrilled. There's a copy of a very touching letter they wrote to him in this manuscript.
beginning with page 36:JOSEPH NESBITT...married, probably in 1787, SARAH MILLER, daughter of ANDREW MILLER of Charleston, S. C. To them was born one child, WILLIAM, September 20, 1788. About a month later Joseph died, as above noted.
Left fatherless at the age of one month, WILLIAM grew up in South Carolina amid difficulties. His widowed young mother married again. Her second husband was JAMES CARROLL of York, S. C. They later moved to Edgefield, S. C. and had several children. Carroll died in Edgefield. William's youth was full of hardships but he got along.
WILLIAM NESBITT on July 12, 1809 married MARY (Polly) LAWLES of Jefferson, Jackson County, Georgia. (See Book A, page 49, Marriage Records, Ordinary's Office, Jefferson. Ga.) Inasmuch as that county was only then being taken from the Indians by settlement by white people, his bride's parental home had undoubtedly been originally elsewhere in the South. Some of their descendants believe that her family went to Georgia from Virginia. Twelve children were born to them as follows:
i. Mahala, b. July 1, 1810
ii. Sarah, b. Jan. 18, 1812
iii. Luzany, b. Sept. 16, 1913
iv. Joseph H., b. May 20, 1815
v. Delaney, b. April 4, 1817
vi. John William, b. Oct. 25, 1818
vii. William Ira, b. November 2, 1820
viii. Alvin C., b. March 5, 1823
ix. Sylvester, b. December 23, 1824
x. Parizade, b. March 24, 1827
xi. Charlton, b. September 23, 1829
xii. Mary. A., b. October 18, 1832
Despite the fact that he had a wife and three children, he enlisted November 6, 1814 as a private in Captain John Nabor's Company, 3rd South Carolina Militia, commanded by Lieut. Colonel John A. Alston, for the remainder of the War of 1812 against England. He was discharged March 16, 1815 (Record of Adjutant General's Office, War Department, Washington, D. C.). In that record his name is spelled N-i-s-b-e-t-t-e. His obituary by his son-in-law includes the fact that he served in the War of 1812.
Moreover, in the Georgia land lottery of 1827 WILLIAM NESBITT "soldier of Gwinnett County" drew a lot in the 9th district of Coweta County. It called for land lot No.25, which contained 202 1/2 acres. That district of Coweta County lies on the south side of and next to the Chattahoochee River.
CHAPTER VII
A NORTH GEORGIA PIONEER
Peace with England following the War of 1812 was signed at Ghent December 24, 1814 and ratified at Washington February 18, 1815. The English cotton mills at once demanded to buy cotton of the United States, and that demand increased for many years. The attention of WILLIAM NESBITT and many others was attracted to the possibilities of growing cotton in Georgia, where land was cheaper than it was in South Carolina. He accordingly moved his family there in 1819, and acquired a plantation at Lawrenceville, Gwinnett County. That move proved to be advantageous, for in 1823 he was able to build a home on his plantation that at this time (1937) is occupied and in a good state of repair and preservation.
On January 24, 1820 he was commissioned to be the first sheriff of Gwinnett County, and his commission was renewed January 17, 1824, and again on February 16, 1828. (County Officers of 1814-1825, pages 450 and 765; and 1826-1833, page 366; Ga. Dept. of Archives, Atlanta). In 1829 and in 1833 he represented Gwinnett County in the Georgia Senate, and in 1839 he was a delegate from Gwinnett County to the Georgia Convention. About that period also he was appointed a member of a commission whose responsibility it was to establish a road to the north. That commission was composed of William Nesbitt of Gwinnett County, James B. Young of Bartow County, and William Crawford of Clark County. The results of their effort is now known as Peachtree Road, which runs from Atlanta, Georgia to South Carolina and north.
WILLIAM NESBITT died June 27, 1863 and is buried on his Gwinnett County plantation. Buried with him are his wife, MARY LAWLES, who died January 3, 1849; Parizade, died March 14, 1860; Joseph H., died April 27, 1860; Mary A., died December 13, 1862; and William Ira, died January 19, 1863.
Feel free to use any of all or of this in your webpage. There are just a couple puzzling things in this work, such as William's birth date. I don't know where this man got the 1788 date, but it may be correct. Mary A. doesn't appear on your list of graves in the cemetery although the manuscript says she's there. But then, my ancestor Mahala/Mahaley is supposedly buried there too (she died young), and there's no stone for her either. Overall though, the manuscript is quite accurate. Oh yes, "Lawles" is really the surname "Lawless."
A cousin of mine sent me a page copy from a book which showed a sort of portrait of William. Unfortunately she neglected to tell me what book. There is a good picture of his daughter Sarah Nesbitt Williams, who married Alfred Williams, on p. 615 of History of Gwinnett County Georgia 1818-1960, Volume II by James C. Flanigan.
Thank you so much again for the webpage. God bless you much.
