Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Tallest Monument in Itawamba County

The tallest cemetery monument in Itawamba County is in Salem Cemetery in the northeastern part of the county marking the grave of Dr. Thomas Copeland. Dr. Copeland was a prominent landowner in the county prior to, and after the Civil War. He also had property in Lauderdale County, Alabama near the town of Lexington. In the current issue of Itawamba Settlers the Southern Claims Commission records of Dr. Copeland have been published. Below is a small excerpt from those records:

I was present when my property was taken. I saw it taken. I saw my horses taken, bacon, corn taken and saw them killing my hogs. Saw them take my steers and that occurred in North Alabama near Lexington on Blue Water in the Spring of 1865. The smoke house door was locked and they broke it down and went to taking and I did not ask any questions about it. The hills were blue for miles around. They had to have forage. They was running Hood and hadn’t any forage wagons with them that I could see. The roads were so bad. The were just pressing through in pursuit of Hood but a portion of them stopped at Lexington while Hood was crossing the turnpike.

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