Carnes graves in the cemetery at Blue Pond Baptist Church. Lizzie and Lissee Carnes and other members of their family are buried here. Blue Pond Baptist Church is located on Ward Mountain Road between Highways 53 and 293 in the Etowah District of Floyd County.
Lissee and the Mrs.
Gladys Hall Smith's* great grandparents were Harriet Elizabeth “Lizzie” Bagwell and Elias “Lissee” Grady Carnes. She was born 11 January 1865 and died unexpectedly on 1 August 1940 at the age of 75 while visiting her daughter, There was a coroner’s inquest, but her death was determined to be due to natural causes. She is buried at Blue Pond Baptist Church cemetery in Floyd County. Lissee was born in May 1866 and died Monday, 30 May 1932 of tuberculosis in Floyd County at the age of 66.
There is an oddity about her name, or lack of it. In her husband’s obituary and on her gravestone, she is identified only as Mrs. Elias G. Carnes, and her name is not on his death certificate (the space is blank). Their son, James W. Euclid Carnes, provided the information for Lissee's death certificate. Curiously, on the second line below "cause of death," below tuberculosis, is the line "He was dying when I reached her bed side." I don't know what to make of that.
Elias G. Carnes’s parents were Andrew Jackson Carnes and Susan C. Silvey, and his grandparents were Shem Carnes and Elizabeth Adams, who are all described in the page, “Andrew Jackson and Susan Silvey Carnes.”
I don’t know when Elias G. Carnes and Harriet Elizabeth Bagwell were married. They are not listed in the Bartow or Floyd County marriage records, but they must have wed about 1898. They had these four children.
1. Fannie Mae Carnes, born 15 December 1899, and died 22 October 1970. She is buried in the Lakeview Cemetery in Plainville, Georgia.
2. James W. Euclid “Ukey” Carnes born 1900 in Georgia. He married a woman named Katie and died in Indiana.
3. Elias William (Wilson?) Carnes, born 23 November 1904 and died 24 January1935. He was an employee of the Rome Stove and Range Company and died of pneumonia. In his obituary are listed four children: Evelyn, Elizabeth, Buster, and Glenn. His wife is simply listed as “widow.” (Rome News-Tribute, 24? January 1935). Elias William Carnes is buried in the Blue Pond Baptist Church Cemetery.
4. Richard B. Carnes, born 7 January 1907 and died 11 January 1928 in the military at Ft. Screven, Georgia, of unknown causes.
The census records for Lissee Carnes can be confusing because in addition to him, there is his namesake and uncle Elias G. Carnes born 1839, and his cousin Elias C. (Canada) (1859-1947), son of James Canada Carnes who was killed at Gettysburg. I am not the only one confused by the similarity in names. The Sons of Confederate Veterans or some such organization apparently were too, because they marked our Elias G. Carnes’s grave at Blue Pond cemetery with a CSA stone, which actually belongs to his uncle. Our Elias G. was not born until after the war, while his uncle Elias G. was a POW taken prisoner at Gettysburg. Because of the confusion, my two sources on most of the information on the Carnes family could not figure out just who is buried at Blue Pond, but my great-aunt still living, Fannie Mae’s daughter, cleared it up.
The cemetery at Blue Pond Baptist Church
As said, our Elias G. Carnes was born in in May 1866 and died 30 May 1932, and is buried next to his wife at Blue Pond. My aunt said the graves at Blue Pond are all members of Lissee and Lizzie's family. Lizzie's grave is marked only by a small marker at the head, and, as I said, she is identified only as Mrs. E. G. Carnes.
My aunt told me the Confederate States of America marker is on the wrong grave in more ways than one. As noted, it should be on Elias G.'s uncle and namesake's grave, wherever that is. Because of the CSA stone, which only identifies him as a member of the 8th Georgia Volunteers, his identifying marker is at the foot of his grave. But my aunt says the tombstones for him and another military tombstone for Richard B., who, as said, died while in the military at Fort Screven, Georgia, are actually switched. The grave marked for Elias contains the remains of Richard and vice versa. They were apparently switched when one or the other of the military makers were put in place. The other marker in the line is for Lissee and Lizzie’s son, Elias W.
There are two flat markers just beyond the main block of graves that are for Clifford H. Carnes (1926-1932) and Walter Carnes (1929-1931). These are the children of James W. Euclid Carnes.
There is also a simple stone carved with the initials E. W. C. near the other Carnes graves. No one knows if it marks a grave or not, and my aunt said it might be a placeholder for someone who was buried elsewhere.
* Who the heck is Gladys Hall Smith? See the Smith-Hall nexus.
