Atlanta's Historic Utoy Cemetery: A Virtual Tour

Atlanta’s Historic

Utoy Cemetery:A Virtual Tour

Presented & Interpreted by:T.J. (Terry) White-VP & HistorianUtoy Cemetery Association, Inc.April, 2012(photographs by the author, unless otherwise noted.)

What is Utoy Cemetery?

Utoy Cemetery is a fenced three and one-half acre suburban cemetery located on Cahaba Drive SW, behind the old Utoy Primitive Baptist Church (now the Temple of Christ Pentecostal Church), 1911 Venetian Drive SW, Atlanta, Georgia 30311-4033.

It has been owned since 1984 by the Utoy Cemetery Association, Inc., a registered, tax exempt 501 (c) (13) non-profit in Georgia.

Why is Utoy Cemetery special to me?

– Six generations of my great-grandparents lie buried there:• Augustus Jacob White (1889-1895) (bro. of my GGF)• Willie Walker White (1881-1881) (infant bro. of my GGF)• Francis Marion White (1827-1925) (3rd GGF)• Elizabeth F. Marchman White (1835-1911)(3rd GGM)• William Wilson White (1800-1895) (4th GGF)• Elizabeth Willis White (1801-1883) (4th GGM)• Jacob “Jake” White – 5th GGF(c.1772-c.1861) War of 1812 &

Creek Indian War• Margaret “Peggy” Suttles Willis – 5th GGM (1785-1870)• William Suttles (1731-1839) 6th GGF (Revolutionary Soldier)• Margaret Harbin Suttles (1748-1839) 6th GGM (wife of Wm.)• Plus, many more distant relatives lie buried at Utoy.

Why should Utoy Cemetery beimportant to you?

If you happen to have ancestors buried there, it is a sacred burial ground for those who made your life possible; by remembering them, you honor them and give them thanks for giving you the gift of life.

If you do not have ancestors buried there, then it is also important because---

Historians say that

Utoy Church and Cemetery is apparently the oldest Baptist Church/Cemetery in Atlanta;

The Church was used as a field hospital during the Battle of Utoy Creek (in the Civil War);

Atlanta’s very first doctor lies buried there! That same doctor treated the wounded soldiers

during the Battle of Utoy Creek in 1864 Revolutionary War soldiers, and veterans of just

about every war in which the United States has ever participated also lie buried there.

Plus …

African slaves and former slaves (after 1865) were members of Utoy Church, and lie buried in the cemetery, right alongside their former masters.

Utoy Cemetery (and the Utoy Cemetery Association, which owns the property), because of the deep involvement of the local community organization, can serve as an excellent example of cooperation and friendship between those races (African and Caucasian) which were once at odds.

We are living the inspiring words of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who said,

“I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves

and the sons of former slave owners, will be able to sit

down together at the table of brotherhood …”

Members and Friends of the Utoy Cemetery Association, March 23rd, 2011

(l-r) Mr. Malcolm McDuffie, Dr. I.M. Spence-Lewis,

Ms. Karen Babineau, Maj. Perry Bennett, U.S.A.

Historic Utoy Cemetery was originally the church cemetery of

Utoy Primitive Baptist Church,

which was founded in what is now Atlanta (but was then part of DeKalb County)

on August 15th, 1824.

Original 1830 deed to the Church Property:

Several Prominent Citizens once worshipped at Utoy Church; among these were: (photo credit: Georgia Archives)

Isaac N. Johnson, who was Sheriff of DeKalb County from 1830 to 1832. He later

represented DeKalb County in the State Senate (he was elected on 10 January 1836). He served Utoy in the 1820s as the Church Clerk, as this entry from the

minutes shows.

And, Joel Herring (1801-1877), who also served as Utoy’s Church Clerk for many years. His brother William Herring , a wealthy Atlanta merchant, built the fine mansion on Peachtree Street which later bore his son-in-law’s name, the “Austin Leyden House,” which was twice mentioned in Margaret Mitchell’s famous Gone With the Wind.

The AustinLeyden House:This fine homewas used in 1864by ConfederateGen. John BellHood as hisAtlanta headquarters.Sadly, it was demolished in the Twentieth

Century. (photo credit: Atlanta History Center)

Confederate General John Bell Hood (1831-1879): (photo credit: Wikipedia)

Margaret Mitchell’s famous novel Gone With the Wind twice mentioned the Austin Leyden House, which house and family has Utoy connections! (photo credit: movieposter.com)

Another close relative of Utoy Church Clerk Joel Herring was

His niece Elizabeth Angeline Herring, whose husband was prominent Atlanta physician, Dr. Nedom L. Angier. Dr. Angier later served as Atlanta’s Mayor during the “Reconstruction” Presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes. Mrs. Angier was another daughter of the afore-mentioned William Herring (1799-1868), the brother of Joel of Utoy Church.

Atlanta Mayor Dr. Nedom L. Angier (1814-1882):

Engraving that appeared with the sketch for "Hon. Nedom L. Angier" in the series "Our Portrait Gallery/Portraits and Biographies of Distinguished Men and Women," the Sunny South, 10 August 1878, page 5.

Autograph Signature of Joel Herring (1801-1877), from the Utoy Primitive Baptist Chureh Minute Books: (photo credit: Georgia Archives)

Nancy Harriet Humphries (1819-1871), who was a daughter of Charner Humphries (1795-1855),

who built the once-famous “Whitehall Tavern,” a stagecoach stop and inn for which Atlanta’s Whitehall Street was named (according to late Atlanta Historian Franklin M. Garrett).

Nancy Humphries was the wife of Dr. William Gilbert (1807-1864) (her 2nd of three husbands), who was Fulton County’s first doctor, and a brother of Atlanta’s first doctor, Dr. Joshua Gilbert.

Nancy’s eldest son by her 2nd husband Dr. Gilbert was Jeremiah Silas Gilbert (1839-1932), whose circa-1865 “Gilbert House” farmhouse still stands in Atlanta, and is a renowned cultural landmark owned and managed by the City.

The well-known Wilbur Kurtz painting of Charner Humphries’ “Whitehall Tavern” in what is now West End:(photo credit: tomitronics.com)

Grave at Utoy of Nancy Harriet Humphries Cornwell Gilbert Key:

A separate adjacent stone reads: “A Southern Lady of the Confederacy”

Photograph of her 2nd husband, Dr. William Gilbert (1807-1864), Fulton County’s first practicing physician:

Her son Jeremiah Silas “Uncle Jerry” Gilbert (1839-1932), and his home:

“Militia Duty” was also a major part of every man’s life in the 1820s. Every able bodied male between the ages of roughly 16 to 60 was expected to attend and take part in military drills and exercises. This is because, with no standing army yet (like we have today), the sole source of “National Defense” was the assembled male citizenry, armed with their flintlocks or pistols! Jeremiah Silas Gilbert recalled one such early “militia day” during a fortunate interview in 1931 by historians Wilbur G. Kurtz and Franklin M. Garrett:

Muster day [of the local militia] was the big event at the [Whitehall] tavern. This was an annual affair, where the yokelry of all the county districts were called together by the major commanding the militia. The functionary who held the county muster at Whitehall was Major Alexander Ratteree. The summons having been issued, the able bodied male citizens came trooping in, with their flint lock fowling pieces, and [were] usually primed for a frolic [i.e., slightly inebriated]. Many horses decorated the rack in front of the big white tavern. Actual drill in the manual of arms lasted about two hours, but this was only a beginning. Trials of marksmanship were then held, with a prize of a yearling cow to the winner. The cow—whoever won it—was then offered up as a sacrifice to the collective appetites of the assemblage, for it was straightway slaughtered, cooked and served, together with the accompanying comestibles [foods], all washed down by copious potations [beverages], not so poetic but more potent than “brown October ale”. Indeed the whiskey barrel was a common institution at such places. Charner [Humphries] kept one on tap in the rear of the store, where cash customers were entitled to drinks “on the house”, but it was considered good etiquette for strangers or occasional visitors, to leave a nickel or dime on the barrel head after imbibing. Drilling, marksmanship and feasting were followed by more diverting entertainment. Most districts had a bully, or one gifted with alleged fistic prowess, and the day was counted lost if somebody didn’t get well pounded and bruised up in the ring—which was literally a ring of cheering and betting spectators, and not a squared circle of rope. Most everybody had a dog, and when all the pugilistic entries were either victors or vanquished, the canine belligerents were cheered on by the owners or partisans. That these dog battles were often extemporaneous detracted not one whit from the enjoyment of the crowd. The militia officers did not at all times retain the respect of the rural soldiery; Mr. Gilbert recalled that at one of the musterings the assembled militiamen, having taken umbrage at something said or done by Major Ratteree, ran him off the place.

Francis Marion White (1827-1925), who served as DeKalb County’s tax collector from 1848 to 1852, also lies buried at Utoy with his wife and family:

Besides being one of DeKalb County’s early public officials, he was a schoolteacher at the old Connally Plantation schoolhouse, from 1844 until 1855 (his most successful former student was famed Atlanta physician, Dr. E.L. Connally), Francis M. White also was elected as a “Justice of the Peace” in 1861 (he served until 1871); this was the equivalent of a county judge in the court system of the Mid-19th Century. Here, he describes making the rounds of the county as the tax collector:

“Besides the Walton Springs there were springs and branches and even creeks all over the woods around here. I had to ride all about and around and collect (names meant something in those days) and then ride to Decatur to turn in the funds. Wild or mild, I had to go. So one time a big rain caught me. I was going over a little bridge and my mare—she was fiery—tried to break away. I held her back and we got over; but no sooner did I top a rise than that bridge just turned around and went on down the creek. I knew then that my mare had sensed the danger and tried to save me. I had [had] enough risk by that time, so I [decided] that I wouldn’t run [for the office of tax collector] again.”

What was life in the year 1824 like? James Monroe (1758-1831) was President, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams each had only two more years

to live, George IV (1762-1830) was King of England, The Poet Lord Byron had just died in April of that year, fighting for

Greek Independence, The Ottoman Empire still ruled the entire Middle East, Composers Beethoven and Schubert were alive in Vienna, The American Revolution, the Louisiana Purchase (1803), the Lewis

and Clark Expedition (1804-06), the War of 1812, and Napoleon and the Battle of Waterloo (1815), were recent memories,

The area where Utoy Church was established was still on the edge of the American frontier,

Native Americans still lived in great numbers in Georgia, Most of Georgia and surrounding states were still vast areas of

Wilderness!

This is how most of Georgia still looked in 1824:

Utoy Church is said to have begun in a log cabin with a dirt floorabout one and a half miles West of where it presently exists.

Life was simpler back then:(Come and sit a spell, now hear!)

But life was also hard:(Dinner came from the ground, not a grocery store …)

Wells did not exist yet in this part of Georgia …Water had to be laboriously hauled long distances from natural springs.

This was how most people got around … (or on foot!)

Most roads looked like this. Even Atlanta’s four original roads had once been ‘Indian’ footpaths, much like this one! The ever-present forest was an overwhelming, forbidding, and fearsome wilderness into which few dared to venture …

Most young men could expect to become farmers. Few ever learned to read or write. Those few who did usually learned out of the family bible, since schools were rare. Life was a hard-scrabble existence, scratching a difficult living out of a stubborn, red-clay soil which was not conducive to Agriculture.

Cotton was King! (Made possible, of course, by a slave economy which not all Southerners or even Georgians supported. Many, in fact, were staunchly anti-slavery and pro-Union. They were unfortunately outvoted.)

Women were expected to accomplish two things in life: marry and raise children, and be a good wife to her husband (by which was meant, know how to spin cloth, sew, cook, make soap, and run a household). School was not considered necessary for women! This photo shows what a kitchen from the 1820s was like. (They were in a separate building from the main house—usually in the former log cabin which had been the first residence.)

Not every young man became a farmer. Some few became joiners, turners, merchants, gunsmiths, or blacksmiths, or some other skilled trade, if a master craftsman lived nearby to whom a boy could be apprenticed.. Here is a 1820s-Era blacksmith shop:

If a town was large and settled enough, it usually boasted of at least one inn, a general store, a jail, a handful of simple frame houses, and an “Academy” (the rough equivalent of a modern high school, except that it taught all ages of students). Decatur in 1824 (the county seat) boasted of all of the above. Decatur’s “Academy” probably looked much like this one (in Oglethorpe County), which dates from 1828. (The famous “Columbia Theological Seminary” was founded in this very building.)

Only the sons of the very wealthy ever became doctors or lawyers, and for most of the Nineteenth Century, it was a mark of real prestige for any family to have a doctor or a lawyer in the family! The Gilberts and the Whites of Utoy Church had doctors in their families. Again, it must be stressed how unusual this was for early, rural Georgia!

Only a well-paid doctor, lawyer, merchant, or politician could ever afford to build a home like this one (built in 1839 in Fayette County):

Most of Utoy Baptist Church’s membership, by contrast, started out in homes like this one:

Though they usually worked their way up to more spacious, though still modest, homes like this one:

Utoy Primitive Baptist Churchas it appeared throughout the Nineteenth Century (photo credit: Georgia Archives)

Church services at Utoy were also plain and simple. Worshippers heard “the Old Time Gospel”

This is a surviving example of the plain, handmade wooden pews worshippers

had to endure sitting on, sometimes for hours!

Life was “brutish, nasty, and short” Diseases like Cholera, Typhus, Yellow Fever, and

Malaria were terribly common, and not very treatable; Infant Mortality was staggeringly high (the high

number of infant graves at Utoy alone is a sobering reminder …);

The Number One killer of women was infections contracted during childbirth;

To help people endure an awful Present, their Preachers promised them a rewarding Future, beyond the Grave;

It was for this promised Heavenly Afterlife which most people yearned. Religion was therefore very important to most of them!

An example at Utoy of an early Nineteenth-Century Stacked-Rock Grave

As mentioned above, in August, 1864, Utoy Church served as a field hospital during the Civil War--

This was during the Civil War “Battle of Utoy

Creek,” part of the larger Atlanta Campaign of

Northern General William Tecumseh Sherman.

Why didn’t the Utoy Battlefield also get preserved and commemorated like Kennesaw?

The “Battle of Utoy Creek” was in fact a Confederate Victory: a determined Union attack against a thin line of entrenched Confederates defending Atlanta got firmly repulsed! If you lost a fight, would you go around broadcasting the news?

Lincoln was facing reelection in the Fall of 1864, and the War was going badly for the North: none of Lincoln’s supporters in Washington wanted news of a Union loss to get out—it would have hampered Lincoln’s chances for reelection! Sherman thus intentionally downplayed the battle’s significance. …

The area of the Utoy Creek battlefield subsequently got mostly developed as housing subdivisions in the 1890s through the early decades of the Twentieth Century.

Battle of Utoy Creek, August 5-7,

1864 Illustration by Marc Stewart (used with permission)

http://aviationart.homestead.com/BattleofUtoyCreek.html

http://aviationart.homestead.com/BattleofUtoyCreek.html

Remember …

“The Victors write the History Books, not the

Losers …”

Utoy CemeteryUnknown Confederate Soldier (one of many buried there)

Atlanta in September, 1864 (photo credit: Georgia Archives):

Dr. Joshua Gilbert (1815-1889)Atlanta’s First Practicing Physician and the doctor who treated the wounded at the Battle of Utoy Creek

Utoy CemeteryDr. Joshua Gilbert’s Grave

The graves of William Wilson White (1800-1895) and his wife Elizabeth Willis (1801-1883) (my ancestors)

The late Atlanta historian Franklin M. Garrett, quoting earlier Atlanta historian Sarah Huff, recounted in his celebrated Atlanta and its Environs the following story about pioneer settler William W. White and his wife:

“William White was one of the first to come and [was] one of the most highly esteemed of all the early comers. He arrived in the year 1824, riding a lank horse, with his plow-gear on the animal, and a side of meat and his plowing utensils tied up in a sack behind him. … The pilfering Indians fretted him very much when they came from their quarters at Sandtown and were forever peeping around the smokehouse and slyly picking up any useful articles lying around. His wife was afraid of them. He had gone back Franklin County after her just as soon as he could get the log cabin ready and was in such a hurry that he didn’t take time to board up some of the cracks between the logs. So when bears, wolves, and panthers came prowling around the house at night, the lady refused to occupy the side of the bed next to the wall for fear that the wild animals would poke their noses through the openings and bite her. Soon Mr. White stopped up the cracks and built various additions to the original cabin, and he and his wonderful helpmate lived to see many great-grandchildren, but he himself was the one to face the wall and sleep on the far side of the big feather bed.”

Grave of Revolutionary War Veteran William Suttles (1731-1839) (also my ancestor)

Grave of pioneer settler Joseph Willis Jr. (1812-1875) (middle of photo)

During the Battle of Utoy Creek, in August of 1864, 26 members of the Willis , White, and Helms families spent three weeks living in an underground “bombpoof” shelter, while the battle raged all around and on top of them!

This underground shelter was behind the home of Joseph Willis, on Willis Mill Road, in Atlanta:

William C. G. “Cap” White (1858-1942), whose parents, grandparents , and other ancestors lie buried at Utoy,

Actually witnessed the fighting during the Battle of Utoy Creek firsthand, as a six-year-old boy in 1864: (he is also my direct ancestor)

In 1938, he recounted the story to a newspaper reporter for the Atlanta Journal:

Another eyewitness to this phase of the fighting (at the “bombproof” shelter at the Joseph Willis home) was none other than Union Brigadier-General Jacob D. Cox, who later wrote about the event in his memoirs:

“In this bomb-proof four families are now living, and I never felt more pity than when, day before yesterday [Aug. 9th], I looked down into the pit, and saw there, in the gloom made visible by a candle burning while it was broad day above, women sitting on the floor of loose boards, resting against each other, haggard and wan, trying to sleep away the days of terror, while innocent-looking children, four or five years old, clustered around the air-hole, looking up with pale faces and great staring eyes as they heard the singing of the bullets that were flying thick above their sheltering place.”

Brigadier-General Jacob D. Cox, U.S. Army:

“Since there was a lull in the fighting at that section of the line,” and since Joseph Willis had come forth “to ask for food,” said Cox, the General “ordered crude tables prepared outside their shelter and summoned the earth dwellers from their temporary tomb to eat their fill.”

“One by one all twenty-six emerged like woodchucks from their underground home: women, children, white-haired men, blinking their eyes at the sudden glare of sunlight, staring with disbelief at the war-shattered countryside they had not seen for three weeks. They wolfed down army rations of hardtack, beef, and Yankee coffee with the avid hunger of the starving, and then crawled back into their burrow to wait in blind faith for the war to end or leave their part of Georgia.”

One of the “innocent –looking children … with pale faces” which witnessed the Battle of Utoy Creek: this boy would later become Dr. John Wilson White (1863-1951) of Atlanta.

He was the lastliving eyewitness of the Battle of Utoy Creek, accordingto late Atlanta historianFranklin M. Garrett.(Several generations of his ancestors lie buriedat Utoy Cemetery.)

Part of the fortifications around Atlanta, September, 1864 (photo credit: Georgia Archives):

Some Photos of Utoy Cemetery today:

Utoy Cemetery EntranceView

Utoy CemeteryBelk Cross and Unknown Confederate Soldiers

Utoy CemeteryRound-about

Unknown Confederate Soldiers

Suspected unmarked graves of descendants of former African slaves

The Utoy Cemetery Association, Inc.

Was founded in 1977 to assist in the maintenance and preservation of Atlanta’s Historic Utoy Church Cemetery.

It is primarily composed of descendants of persons buried in the cemetery (or former church members), with the addition of individuals interested in historic preservation.

In 1984, the Association was deeded the 3 ½ acre cemetery property by the Deacons of Utoy Primitive Baptist Church.

I have been a member since 1979 (age sixteen).

Utoy Cemetery Association, Inc.April 11, 2011 Meeting

Front Row-left to right: Maxine McDuffie – Member; Elder Joe F. Hildreth – Member; Dr. I. M. Spence-Lewis-Westridge-Sandtown Community Organization; Dianese Howard-Westridge-Sandtown Community Organization.Back row- left to right: Michael Mitchell-Visitor (drove Elder Hildreth); Malcolm McDuffie – Vice President; Major L. Perry Bennett, Jr. – President; Tyler Walden-Friend of Utoy Cemetery; Terry White – Vice President; D. Gordon Draves - East Point Historical Society.

Countless man-hours of hard, manual labor, and thousands of donated dollars, have been spent cleaning up Utoy Cemetery to date! (Thanks to all our volunteers)

Utoy Cemetery Association, Inc.Officers (2011)

Major Perry Bennett, Jr. –President T.J. (Terry) White-VP-Historian Malcolm McDuffie-VP-Operations Charles Strickland-Treasurer Joe Suttles – Member and Chairman

Board of Directors

In the year 2009, we began the process of applying to get the cemetery placed on

The National Registry of Historic

Places, in Washington, D.C.

National Register Application• January, 2009 – We began the preliminary application• Feb 11, 2010 - Preliminary Application was sent

– Certified mail/return request receipt to DNR-HPD – Attachments half-inch deep plus photos

• March 9, 2010 – Historic Preservation Division advises us that we are eligible to apply– "Historic Property Information Form (HPIF)" Required

• August 1, 2010 – Final Application was hand delivered to HPD – Attachments were 4 inches deep!

• June 20, 2011- Ga. National Review Board approved Utoy for the Georgia Register of Historic Places

• HPD must now prepare and forward our application to Washington, D.C. for federal approval on the National Register of Historic Places. – DNR preparation effort and federal approval process will take many

additional months

National Register Criteria for Evaluation.

• To be eligible for listing in the National Register, a property must– Be old enough to be considered historic (generally at

least 50 years old), and – Still look much the way it was in the past. – In addition, the property must:• be associated with events, activities, or developments that

were important in the past; or• be associated with the lives of people who were important in

the past; or• be significant in the areas of architectural history, landscape

history, or engineering; or• have the potential to yield information through archaeological

investigation that would answer questions about our past.

August 1, 2010Utoy Cemetery Final Application for Inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places Page 2 of 4 PagesParagraph 2

In 1864, the Utoy church served as a military field hospital for captured Union and wounded Confederate soldiers. There are twenty-three (23) unknown Confederate soldiers, from Gen. S.D. Lee's Corps of Bate's Division, buried at the Utoy Cemetery. These were among the 35 Confederate casualties of the Battle of Utoy Creek, who died from wounds treated at the Utoy Church field hospital. One additional known casualty of this conflict and eleven (11) other known Confederate veterans are also buried at Utoy. Additionally, a portion of the Rebel defensive line still exists, only a few feet north of the Confederate graves.


The Utoy Church and Cemetery are part of a popular driving tour of Civil War historical markers, starting at the Battle of Ezra Church and Westview Cemetery Markers, then to Utoy Church, and on to the Surrender, Fort Hood, and Change of Command Markers.

We participate every March with the Atlanta Preservation Center’s “Phoenix Flies” tours of historic or cultural sites.


During the 1864 Battle of Utoy Creek, the Confederates established a field hospital for this area at the Utoy Primitive Baptist Church. The primary surgeon was Dr. Joshua Gilbert who was assisted by Miss Sarah Hendon as a nurse, and other volunteers from the area. Both Dr. Gilbert and Miss Hendon are buried in the Utoy Cemetery with DAR and UDC memorial recognition.


Dr. Joshua Gilbert was Atlanta's first doctor. He was born in 1815 in South Carolina and was graduated from the old Augusta Medical College in 1845 and then came to Atlanta. At that time, Atlanta was called Marthasville and was located in DeKalb County. Here Dr. Gilbert practiced medicine until his death in 1889.

• August 1, 2010Utoy Cemetery Final Application for Inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places Page 3 of 4 PagesParagraphs 4 & 5

Dr. Gilbert and Miss Hendon treated both Confederate and captured Union soldiers. A Colonel James S. Boynton, commanding the 30th Georgia Infantry of Brigadier General H. R. Jackson's Georgia Brigade, was treated here after being wounded at the Battle of Utoy Creek, one mile Northwest of Utoy Cemetery, along what is now Cascade Road SW.

Colonel Boynton later became President of the Georgia Senate and, on March 5, 1883, the day after the death of Governor Alexander H. Stephens, he became of Governor of Georgia, to serve until a special election could be held.


A week after Colonel Boynton’s being wounded, his division commander Major General William B. Bate was treated here on 10 August 1864 from wounds received at the Battle of Utoy Creek, and was evacuated to Barnesville, Georgia to recuperate.


Union casualties were interred here until 1866, when they were moved by the US Quartermaster's Office at Atlanta, to the National Cemetery in Marietta, Georgia, where they lie buried to this day.


The Battle of Utoy Creek was a major victory for the Confederates and a terrible loss to the Union Army under Sherman. The Plan of Sherman was poorly executed by Schofield, forcing Sherman into an unwinnable siege war. US Forces in total amongst the two corps in killed and wounded were a little less than two thousand troops. The Confederates losses included 35 killed and two hundred wounded or captured.


It was only after General Sherman outflanked the Confederate Army to the south of East Point, and cut the railroad [line] at Jonesborough, that he secured a Confederate victory in the Battle of Atlanta, thus ensuring President Lincoln’s re-election, and the fall of the Confederacy.

Utoy Primitive Baptist Church(around 1949)

Utoy Church Today (2012)(Now Temple of Christ Pentecostal) (photo credit: Malcolm McDuffie)


The Georgia Historical Commission has placed a marker near the Corner of Venetian Dr. and Cahaba Drive in SW Atlanta signifying the importance of the Utoy Church and cemetery: The DAR, SAR, and the UDC have marked and improved both Revolutionary and Civil War graves

The SAR will be conducting a grave marking ceremony for Patriot William Suttles on Sept. 8th, 2012. You are all cordially invited!

The SAR holding a grave marking ceremony at Utoy in 1982 (I was there):

Utoy CemeteryHistorical Marker

Utoy CemeteryHistorical Marker Text

Historic Utoy Church State Historical MarkerLocated at the cemetery on Cahaba Dr. just off Venetian Dr. in Atlanta, Ga.

HISTORIC UTOY CHURCH

Utoy Primitive Baptist Church, the oldest Baptist Church in present Fulton County, was constituted August 15, 1824, in a log house just west of here. The church was moved to its present location in the summer of 1828.

In 1864 the church was used as a Confederate hospital. July 22, Col. James S. Boynton, 30th Georgia, was wounded and brought to Utoy Church for medical care. Boynton later became President of the Georgia Senate and on March 5, 1883, the day after the death of Governor Alexander H. Stephens, he became of Governor of Georgia, to serve until a special election could be held.

In the cemetery at Utoy Church lies buried Dr. Joshua Gilbert, Atlanta's first doctor. Born in 1815 in South Carolina, Dr. Gilbert was graduated from old Augusta Medical College in 1845 and came to Atlanta. At that time Atlanta was called Marthasville and was located in DeKalb County. Here he practiced medicine until his death in 1889.

060-192 GEORGIA HISTORICAL COMMISSION 1961

Newspaper Article-“Utoy Baptist Church Has Fascinating History and Interesting Cemetery” Southside Sun March 18, 1971

Newspaper Article-“Old Cemetery Finds Friends” Atlanta Journal, February 1, 1978Judge Thrift wants to List on National Historic Register

Newspaper Article-“Somebody Still Cares” Southside Sun December 8, 1978

Newspaper Article-Cemetery Cleanup Southside Sun December 6, 1979

On June 13th, 2011,

Utoy Cemetery was added to the

Georgia Register of Historic Places!

(with inclusion on the National Registry to follow)

June 13, 2011 Letter Advising That Utoy had Passed the State of Georgia National Review Board

June 13, 2011 Letter Advising Our Passing Georgia National Review BoardParagraph 1

Congratulations! Utoy Cemetery has passed the Georgia National Review Board. The next step is for our National Register Staff to prepare the final nomination to be sent to the National Register of Historic Places in Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, each of the National Register staff employees has other job responsibilities along with a number of other National Register nominations, so it usually takes quite a while for nominations to be processed and submitted to Washington.

Atlanta's Historic Utoy Cemetery: A Virtual Tour

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