The Story
The story of this cemetery reaches back to a congregation where Black and white worshippers, enslaved and free, gathered together from 1803 until just after the Civil War. When the church divided along racial lines, its formerly enslaved members carried the original Beech Branch name to a new congregation founded around 1869 under Rev. L. P. Carter, eventually settling on land off Highway 24 near Sardis. The frame church that once stood amid these graves burned in 1966, and years of vandalism have since left many of the burials here unmarked.
About this site
Beech Branch Baptist Church Cemetery is a cemetery in Sardis, Burke County. It is one of 70 cemeteries documented in Burke County, among 109 historic sites cataloged across the county on Georgia Roam.
The site sits at 32.9802, -81.7786 near Sardis. The nearest cataloged historic site is Sardis Baptist Church Cemetery (cemetery), about 0.4 miles away. Others within a short drive include Sardis Baptist Church, Jenkins Cemetery, and Old Quaker Road.
This record is drawn from the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.
Georgia