I Lift Up My Eyes to the Hills: Relocation of the Williams Cemetery (9FU510) Fulton County, Georgia

A poorly marked burial ground within the construction footprint of planned improvements to the

Fulton County Airfield (Charlie Brown Airfield) in Fulton County, Georgia, prompted the relocation of the Williams Cemetery (9FU51 0) in accordance with the Official Code of Georgia (OCGA) 36-72-1 , et. seq. (Abandoned Cemeteries and Burial Grounds). Since the grounds fell within Atlanta city limits, Atlanta City Code Sections 38-60 through 38-69 also applied. In 2015, a Certificate of Appropriateness was issued by the City of Atlanta and a Memorandum of

Agreement (MOA) between the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT), Fulton County, Majestic Realty, and the Georgia State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) was signed in September 2016. Relocation of the cemetery commenced on November 11, 2016, and removal from the construction site was completed on December 5, 20 16. The features, artifacts, and human remains from this cemetery are summarized in this report. Excavations revealed 22 features containing 18 human mortuary features. Two of the remaining features were identified as potential wall foundations, and the others were tree or bush molds.

Examination determined that the cemetery received interments between the 1820s and the 1880s during a period when the grounds were owned by the Blake, Nelson, Williams, and Greene families. Over 65 percent of the cemetery was represented by infants and children. Most decedents were placed in hexagonal coffins or rectangular caskets and interred in two-stage or 'vaulted ' graves. Some decedents exhibited no durable clothing or burial cases and may have been deposited in shrouds. At least one grave (Feature 7) was originally marked with fieldstone markers. Granite box tombs were originally placed on at least four graves, and Mary Williams (d. 1845) received a formal marble obelisk gravestone. A maker's mark on Mary Williams' marker indicated that it was imported from Augusta and likely was transported on the newly completed rail line between Augusta and Marthasville (now Atlanta). The identities of remaining decedents could not be verified. A stone wall was likely built around a portion of the cemetery to distinguish some members of the cemetery population as unique from others. Mary Williams was reinterred next to her husband's (Frederic Williams) burial site in Oakland Cemetery. The remaining materials and human remains from the cemetery were reinterred at the Barber Cemetery in Mableton, Georgia.