High Bluff Cemetery is home to some wonderful dirt roads (SEE ABOVE YESSSSS), moss draped gnarled trees (again, above), a primitive church (below), wooden markers and some very protective neighbors. Don’t let the latter scare (skeeeeer) you off. They just keep an eye out to make sure that you’re not up to no good.
Here are a few of my favorite finds. Cast iron, vernacular, swamp folk portraits and handhewn fencing. OH MY!
Most importantly for my research, it’s home to the grave of the infamous Lydia Smith Stone Crews. I grew up hearing her name all the time and she’s still spoken of in Waycross with tones of reverence and fear. So who was Lydia exactly?
Lydia Stone was the name she was best known by, but she was born Lydia Smith and died Lydia Crews, the name of her second husband.
Lydia Stone was known by such various nicknames as “Queen of the Okefenokee” and “The Swamp Baroness.” Add in her ability to ride horses, wrestle hogs and traverse the muck of the swamp with ease and the fact she was 6 feet 6 inches tall, well, you got one heck of a story!
Money Money Money
In an interview in 1928, the simple-living millionairess told her formula for success: “When I was a girl, my `pappy’ gave me and my sisters a cow and a sow apiece and told us if we would look after them we could make some money. Before the year was out, I made a few dollars off mine and had saved every penny of it. After another year I made enough to buy 45 acres of land. I got it dirt cheap. And as soon as I could save little money ahead, I would buy some timber land; until now, I own nearly 30,000 acres.”
“I never went to school but six days and the pity of it is, I didn’t learn anything in those six days. But a man ain’t livin’ that can outfigger me.”The “Queen of the Okefenokee” died at her Racepond home on January 4, 1938; she was laid to rest beside her parents, a sister, and a former husband. And the tallest monument in the cemetery was erected to the unschooled woman who, once, very simply, stated the chief rule of finance: “I always said I could make $5 out of every $1 I could get my hands on. I believe anybody can if they’re careful and not afraid to work.” And her estate of over a million confirmed her philosophy. source
Scandal Scandal Scandal
But no matter how much money she might have, it couldn’t always keep her out of hot water!
At age 40, she fell in love with 23-year-old Gordon Stone, a 5-foot-5 timber employee with blue eyes, black hair and a dapper moustache. The woman who told a newspaper that it was disgraceful to see a female riding a bicycle in bloomers moved him into her home and created a scandal. A grand jury indicted them in 1903 for living together without being married. They also were arrested for operating a moonshine still. They got married, and the charges were dismissed. They pled guilty to moonshining and paid a $100 fine.
Their legal woes behind them, they proceeded with the work of running the empire. After 23 years of marriage, Stone died in 1926 at age 48 of pernicious anemia. He was buried in High Bluff Cemetery in Brantley County, Ga., beside her parents, William and Sarah Smith.
A year later, Miz Liddie set her sights on tall, wiry Melton Crews, known as a diligent and conscientious employee who had worked for her off and on while growing up. She began inviting him to dinner. They were engaged for a year and married in Folkston in 1928, when she was 64 and he was 22. The vast age difference created another scandal as did the moniker she gifted him “Doll Baby.” Passersby would spot her holding Doll Baby in her lap while sitting in the rocking chair on the porch of her South Georgia home.
But there was more drama to come. Serious drama.
There are various accounts of what happened in 1931, but what isn’t disputed is that Doll Baby shot a man.
The story goes, according to Mrs. Lois, that the victim’s wife ran over to the Crew’s house fearing someone was trying to break into her home. Doll Baby grabbed his shotgun and ran out the back door to investigate.
He testified that he heard a window screen being torn and saw two men on the porch. It was too dark to see their faces. When he called for them to halt, the men bolted and ran. He fired his shotgun and wounded Hendrix in the leg.
After a controversial delay of several hours, Hendrix was taken to the hospital in Waycross leaving behind unanswered questions. He died two days later having bled to death. The grand jury charged Doll Baby with murder.
Though it sounded like a case of a man protecting his neighbor’s property, the grand jurors saw a man who drank too much. Besides, an eyewitness had testified that Doll Baby knew he was shooting at Hendrix and had been angry with him.
The trial in the Charlton County Courthouse ended with a conviction of voluntary manslaughter and a sentence of 15 to 20 years hard labor on a chain gang.
Many believed the rumors that Lydia and her lawyer visited the statehouse in Atlanta to arrange a backroom deal with Gov. Eugene Talmadge. The story goes that she brought a check for $1,000 and promised another $1,000 when Crews was set free. In 1933, he was granted a full pardon. She wrote out the second check, Doll Baby was released and she immediately went to the bank to stop payment.
The backyard deal rumors persisted for three years prompting her to publish a notice of denial in the newspaper.
In her final years, she turned to God. By the fall of 1937, she was bedridden with a circulatory disorder. She announced her religious conversion in the newspaper before she died.
Doll Baby, he inherited her land and cattle, remarried, had two daughters and died in a Jacksonville hospital in 1970. He was 63 and also is buried in High Bluff. – source
Read All About It
I love this book! It covers Lydia’s life, including her business ventures (livestock, cotton, moonshine), her wealth, and her interactions with the law and local figures like Governor Eugene Talmadge. The authors have written other books about the Okefenokee so they’ve done their research for sure!
SIDEQUESTS
Just down the road you’ll find Laura S. Walker State Park and a bit further the entrance to the Okefenokee Swamp Park. If you only have time for one then definitely go to the swamp because there are train rides, boat rides, historical living displays, bird shows, snake shows, gators snoozing on sidewalks, dioramas galore and a most excellent gift shop. They also sell the book mentioned above!
Tip: well, requirement really. Bring bug spray. All year round. 10000% deet. The swamp is absolutely gorgeous but it has the most vicious critter of the south in it – fucking mosquitoes. LOTS of mosquitoes.
High Bluff Church & Cemetery
High Bluff Rd.
Waycross, GA 31503
