"Possum Valley plight -- Descendants in lawsuit say old cemetery destroyed"
03/08/2000
Birmingham News
Written by ANNE RUISI, Birmingham News staff writer
(Phone: 205-325-2222)
Possum Valley Cemetery on Jaybird Road.
The Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Eugene Verin has given plaintiffs in
a lawsuit over the destruction of Possum Valley Cemetery on Jaybird Road in Brighton, Alabama until early April 2000 to find a
minimum of 30 people to join them as plaintiffs. The 10 current plaintiffs want to pursue the case as
a class action. The judge also has to decide whether the plaintiffs, as class-action representatives, can represent those persons
interred in the cemetery who have no known next of kin. To have a class-action suit, the plaintiffs need at least 40 people in the
suit.
The plaintiffs say the mostly wooded cemetery was destroyed when a bulldozer
cleared the land more than a year ago. Possum Valley Cemetery, also known as Key's Hill or
Joley Cemetery, was originally a burial ground for slaves. It was established about 1843 and was
mostly used by poor black families in the area.
Jefferson County, AL records indicate the presence of a cemetery on the property. Records in the county tax assessor's
office say the property contains a TEN-ACRE CEMETERY. One of the defendants says that the property
was checked for graves before a contractor cleared the site. The only graves found were a few near the road, which were roped off
and left untouched.
It is listed in a 1941 survey of cemeteries taken by the county Health
Department.
Funeral home records indicate Bedeingo Curry, who died in January 1915 at age
105 was buried at Possum Valley Cemetery at the expense of Woodward Iron Co.
The Alabama Department of Vital Statistics also holds death certificates for
several people buried at Possum Valley, like 19-year-old Sallie Thomas, who died from tuberculosis on Sept. 2, 1913.
Mandy Hardy was buried there after dying in the 1919 Spanish flu pandemic.
Anyone who is descended from those buried at Possum
Valley Cemetery, or who has information on their families, may call Lucy Carlisle at 205-428-9406.
