The first public burial ground in Glynn County was located in Wright Square bordered by the streets of Egmont (west), Mansfield (north), and George (south); and a few other streets bisect it today; Glynn Middle School once sat upon this ancient city cemetery.  Before the school was built in 1953 at least one home (maybe 1 or 2 more) rested near the site; its address was 3 Wright Square.  Absolutely no listing of burials have been found to date and the only "proven" burial was that of Revolutionary War Patriot Benjamin Hart who died sometime in late 1801 or early 1802.  It could be assumed that many of the early pioneers of Glynn County were buried in this cemetery prior to the opening of Oak Grove Cemetery in the 1830's.  However, the opening of Oak Grove Cemetery has come under scrutiny as well due to the City Council Minutes dated late 1839 early 1840 where the creation of Oak Grove was still being discussed.

While searching for random obituaries, I found a newspaper article telling us a little bit about the fate of this former city cemetery (see right).  Many persons today are interested in excavating the site but after reading the article, it would appear that there is nothing, or very little, left to excavate.  It would be nice to know what happened to the tombstones from this cemetery, if there were any other than wooden markers, and of course who was interred here, but to know exactly who was interred here an archeological dig with DNA testing would have to be performed; something not likely to be in the city budget, especially without having test subjects to match the remains with.

After the Glynn Middle School building was torn down, Mr. Bill Weeks (the City Manager, with the assistance of the public works department) decided to scrape off a layer of topsoil to see if any evidence could be found indicative of the rumored burials.  'Lo and behold, the faint outline of a coffin could be seen and immediately Fred Cook (local resident and archaeologist with Southeastern Horizons, Inc.) was called in to help further investigate this find and to confirm that this was a human burial site.  Mr. Cook and Mr. Weeks found four more gravesites that day!  The city allowed a "dig" to be performed to determine the exact size and boundaries of the cemetery, eventually 37 burial sites were unearthed.  None of the 37 showed any signs of disinterment and the layout of the grave sites suggests that somehow the town knew exactly where everyone was buried, suggesting there were grave markers of some kind; whether they were wooden markers that rotted over time or stone markers that were removed.

In the meantime, we can build a "presumed" listing by using early probate records and other sources that record the deaths of Glynn County's earliest residents.  Below is such a record compiled by Amy Lyn Hedrick, however, be warned, that this is NOT an accurate listing nor is it to be presumed to be a true and correct listing of persons buried in this cemetery.

Also, there is no other listing like this online, nor is there a published one for that matter, concerning this cemetery.  Therefore, if this listing appears on other websites, like Find-A-Grave, it will be presumed that said persons plagiarized Amy Lyn Hedrick's work.

I have never, and do not, give permission for this work to appear on other websites, nor for it's use in electronic, written, and/or digital publications without express written permission from myself, Amy Lyn Hedrick, directly.

From the time of Glynn County's "official" beginnings in 1777 up until the opening of Oak Grove Cemetery in 1832 (or maybe later in 1840), many people lived and died in this county and unfortunately many never left a record of death.  By using public records of the time period one can only presume that the deceased was buried here in this cemetery.  As was the custom at that time, most people were buried on their own land in a small family burial plot or in a designated burial spot between several plantations; even a few people who lived in the city chose to be buried on their land.  The majority of these small cemeteries have been lost over time either through Mother Nature or through human destruction therefore most of the persons appearing in this list may actually be buried on their own properties or in other established cemeteries, but their names have been included here "just in case".

As you can tell, this database is comprised of predominately male interments.  The state of Georgia did not officially keep death records until 1919 and prior to the Civil War, women were less likely to inherit lands and property to leave after their death.  Since death records do not exist, other than in church and personal records, I had to rely largely on estate records to compile this database.  Also used were obituaries found in many historic newspapers from around the country found in online databases.

The Brunswick Times Advertiser;
Wednesday 4 April 1894; pg. 1 col. 7

REOPENED GRAVES—The Sewerage Shovels Strike Against Human Bones—Ghastly Finds at the Egmon [sic] Street Excavations—The Spot an Ante-Bellum Cemetery, Antedating Oak Grove.
          When the muscular negroes who take orders from Contractor Tate drove their spades deep into the soft earth on Egmon [sic] street, at the point where it borders Wright square this morning, they did not think they were digging into the secrets of a city of the dead, but that was nevertheless the case.
          Consequently, when at a depth of about four feet, one of the men turned up several human bones, he did not sing carelessly like the grave-digger in “Hamlet,” but his expression was one of mingled fear and astonishment.
          The excavations went on, however, not hindered at all by the gloomy evidences of man’s decay which were unearthed with almost every spade full of dirt, until a good-sized heap of bones were dug out.
          Contractor Tate, not knowing the past history of that plot of ground, thought his sewerage work had been the means of discovering the remains of some aboriginal people, who had thronged this peninsular long before such things as mains, pumping wells and surface drainage were dreamed of.
          The history of Wright square and the streets and lots surrounding it is however, an ample explanation of how those human bones got there, and why it was possible for a gang of workmen, in broad daylight, on a public thoroughfare, and in the midst of a populace such an eloquent reminder of that dead Past which lies always just under the surface of the sunny Present.
          Wright square was a public burying ground before Oak Grove cemetery was laid out.  It was at the time when the suburbs were unsurveyed woods and when only that portion of town lying along the Bay was at all populated.  Some of the pioneers of Brunswick’s municipal history were buried there.  When Oak Grove cemetery was opened, a large number of remains were disinterred and removed to the new burying ground.
          Finally, it was abandoned entirely, the mounds became level with the earth and for a long period, up to about ten years ago, only one solitary tombstone remained standing to mark the former uses of the ground.  This tombstone soon shared the fate of the others and was removed.
          Then, the city chaingang, under command of Captain Lewis Harris, went to work to modernize the cemetery and convert it into a park.  The surface was graded to a depth of from one to two feet, leaving pedestal-like mounds about the roots of the oaks.  This grading of the graves of course brought the bones of the dead nearer to the surface—but, it also robbed the square of its horror to the superstitious and its gloomy suggestions to all who passed that way.
          But, although the mounds and the tombstones were gone the evidences of man’s mortality remained, and the history of the spot will be brought back to the recollection of man by these discoveries unearthed by the sewerage shovels.

The news article to the right also suggests that the remains of those interred could have been removed, most to Oak Grove Cemetery, but it's possible that others were re-interred at Christ Church on St. Simons Island.  For example, Cyrus Dart and his wife Ann's tombstone is located at Christ Church yet they lived on the mainland and close to this ancient city cemetery.  Since Ann's family was of St. Simons and already buried on the island, their remains were probably interred at Christ Church; or, at the very least, their tombstone was removed.  However, this is just speculation, no proof has been found to suggest this actually happened; especially since, of the 37 graves found, none show signs of being disinterred.  Relocating a grave in modern times is a time consuming and costly endeavor, imagine doing this in the early 1800's, so it would make sense that only the tombstones were relocated and not the actual remains.

This speculation also leads one to wonder about the "early" burials at Oak Grove Cemetery.  Were they originally interred in this city cemetery but later removed to Oak Grove?  One tombstone is made of slate imported from the New England territory; quite out of character for families buried in Oak Grove but something that would be at home in a cemetery started in the late 18th century.  Those early Oak Grove burials include, Charlotte Plant who died 12 May 1838; Horace Gilpatrick with the slate tombstone from 2 September 1839; William Mansfield Bancroft who died 2 November 1840, and Aaron Todd who died 20 August 1846.

Also, one has to wonder where everyone was buried that died between 1840 and 1870 that do not appear in Oak Grove Cemetery's burial listing.  Were they in unmarked graves in Oak Grove, was the large portion of Oak Grove destroyed for the railroad tracks just completely obliterated and the tombstones done away with?  Many questions remain on just how big Oak Grove Cemetery was originally and how many graves were lost.