Would you be willing to try to find the old Teel family cemetery? I think it was enumerated sometime in the 1960's or so for the Coosa County Cemetery census book.

I have several clues to its location, but not being an expert on land records or maps or being from the area (or having much access, only having been there about 2 times) and not knowing the old residents, it might as well be in Russian for me.

I have been told it was once located "in a cornfield owned by George Washington Pody about 1 1/2 miles south of the old Weogufka First Baptist Church." But he died in 1983 & I don't know where his land was either.

In 2000, I was told by my dad (Mickey Lane Smith) who presumably learned it from his father that the Teel Cemetery is on land (in the woods) near Weogufka Creek Bridge according. He said Winston David Smith (his father) and his family farmed the bottom land on the creek there (circa the 1950's). The shortest access to the (George Washingont) Pody Place is the north side of the Weogufka Creek Bridge, but a smaller bridge to the property was washed out a few years ago and never replaced. He said they took the longer route (which he used to travel every day on the school bus when he attended Weogufka High School) between the "home place" and the Archie Payton Place which is 4-5 miles long.

This "old home place" is probably the land formerly owned by WD Smith's dad, David Lonnie Smith, Jr. who married Missouri Calloway. They may have inherited it from David Lonnie Smith, Sr. & Emily July Teel (dau of Calvin Teel).

I was told in 2001 that it is now on private property owned by a doctor (perhaps a dentist?) who lives in Sylacauga. A man by the name of Dr. Bowers. I think it is gated & used for hunting grounds. Once a fellow researcher who said he knew or thought he knew where it was had gotten permission to go on the land & agreed to take my dad there, but something happened & that meeting never took place or the guy (with permission & knowledge of the exact whereabouts) never showed up.

I would love to know the exact location (address, coordinates, explicit directions, esp. for someone who has no sense of direction) as well as the current owner's name & contact info (if possible), to get permission to visit the graves, a complete survey of the cemetery &/or photos of the graves, if possible.

I am descended from the Teels as well as the Smiths. I know there is at least one marked Smith burial there; the infant of Betty C. Smith who would have been unmarried at the time. I do not know who originally owned the property or who the cemetery was originally named for, but Calvin Teel was the father of Emily Teel who married David Lonnie Smith, Sr. so I assume it was named for him.

Calvin Teel was b/ 8 Oct 1821 and d/ 9 Oct 1864 after coming home sick from the war and dying (at home). I assume he would be the first burial there (probably unmarked or deteriorated) and that it was probably once his property & hence named after him.


It would be great if this cemetery (and access) was opened up to the public or at least the descendants &/or researchers somehow. Otherwise, it will not only probably deteriorate greatly, but the information that it even exists will one day cease to be as well.

I found a similar situation with a cemetery ca 1994 in Etowah Co, AL where my ancestor, a soldier in the War of 1812 & Indian wars was buried as was his son, once the Sheriff of Etowah County. It was in private wooded land up a private drive (uphill, not visible from the road) & much overgrown & not marked.

A map company put out a map of churches & cemeteries in the county & this one was unmarked. I wrote letters to the AL DOT to get them to survey the land & note it, but they said it was the map-maker's responsibility to update their records with AL DOT. After the DOT surveyed it, they sent me a nice letter with some info from the graves (I had been to the cemetery & surveyed part of it as my grandmother was live & knew where it was). They also sent me a printout of their updated DOT map (at least of that area) showing the cemetery notated. I sent a letter to the mapmaker of this cemetery & the DOT's notation of it advising them to correct / update their records & future map publications. In the early 2000's, I again found such a map with churches & cemeteries noted but apparently the map company never compared their records with DOT's and updated it as this cemetery (Lee Cemetery in Gallant / Clear Creek area) was still not listed.

I'd love to do the same (with better results) for the Teel cemetery, but would need to know a firm location first. My hopes are that in the worst situation (repeated unapproved access, overgrowth, deterioration of the cemetery etc), that at least people would know where it is or is supposed to be, for future generations so these ancestors are not entirely forgotten (or neglected).

I really wish there was some kind of law or protection over ALL cemeteries, even those on private lands, requiring either personal maintenance of them & public / descendant access or requiring them to be turned over to the control & maintenance of some governmental or historical agency.

Briana Felch