Surretts Cemetery Preservation

Home
United States
Coldwater, MS
Surretts Cemetery Preservation

Surretts Cemetery is located in Arkabutla, Mississippi. The first marked burials were in the year of 1853. Our purpose is monument restoration and preservation.

05/15/2026

A FRIENDLY REMINDER: Surretts Cemetery does not have employees to pick up discarded flowers and debris left by visitors. They do have two trash cans at the front gate. Please place all your unwanted flowers in these cans when you leave. Your help in keeping our cemetery clean and neat is greatly appreciated

05/03/2026

We had two large Woodmen of the World tree-stump-shaped monuments precariously leaning and in danger of falling. Each one weighs over 1000 pounds. The base of one is broken. Hopefully we can repair it and reinstall. Stay tuned for updates.

04/24/2026

Beautiful week to work inf the cemetery. We had two stones on the ground, John C. and John A. Hudson. With the help of a probe, we found their slot bases completely buried in the ground. Both were in good condition and reusable. We reinstalled, leveled the bases and reattached the headstones to the slot base.

John Crane Hudson was born in Knox, Tennessee on 19 January 1795. He married Rachael Bradley March 11, 1817 in Shelby County, TN. They were the parents of 16 children, 7 sons and 9 daughters. Rachel died in 1841. He married Nancy Harris in 1842.

The only information I have found on John A. Is from Find A Grave. He was the son of A. T. and Elizabeth Hudson. He was six years old.

04/22/2026

Yesterday's work was setting two slots

04/13/2026

Melissa Govenda Wadley Scott (27 August 1858 - 25 January 1890)

We reset Melissa's monument and moved her foot stone (which was overturned and out of place) beside her main monument. We did this for ease of mowing. This monument is going to require a lot of cleaning.

Melissa was the daughter of a Methodist minister, Daniel Belvins Wadley and Nancy Catherine Glover. She married Newell Menifee Scott November 21, 1878 in Tate County Mississippi. Her obituary says she had four small children when she died. I have only found three. After the death of his wife, Newell moved away from Arkabutla. The children lived with their grandparents, J A and Emily Brown Scott. Mr and Mrs Scott are buried in Hopewell Cemetery, Arkabutla MS

Her children were: Estella Mae "Stella" Scott Patrick (2/19/1881 - 4/15/1910). She married Joseph Henry Patrick. They both are buried in Hopewell Cemetery in Arkabutla. Lola Claire "Claire" Scott Sullivan (10/21/1883 - 9/19/1967). She married Emmett Banks Sullivan. She is buried in Greenhill Cemetery, Asheville, NC. Blanche Wadley Scott Higgins (12/25/1889 - 10/12/1974). She married Walter Scott Higgins and is buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Oakland CA.

⁰

04/12/2026

We have started the new year of work at Surretts. The first job was to set a new monument for Thomas Oscow Powell. He was the son of Williamson and Martha Washington McGuffy Powell. The top part of his old monument was found on the ground. The bottom part and the slot base was missing. With the help of Cindy Jones of Pate Jones Funeral Home we were able to obtain a new monument from the US Department of Veterans Affairs.

Thomas was a member of CO B, 42nd Mississippi Infantry and was captured at Gettysburg, held at Fort Delaware until release on Oath in June 1865. He returned home to Mississippi and resided there until his death in 1874.

01/30/2026

2025 YEAR END RECAP

We ended the year completing 27 monuments. Due to the rainy spring and other commitments, we did not get started until August. We completed 17 relatives and 10 historicals. Most of the relatives consisted of re-leveling and cleaning. The historicals required a bit more work. Several of them were in pieces and had to be dug out of the ground and rejoined.

Apart from the satisfaction of restoring and preserving the historical monuments, I have found a lot of family history that I was not aware of. I found my Great Grandmother's headstone (Margaret Strube Prater). I knew she was buried in Surretts but could find no headstone. With the help of a probe, a Christmas present from my daughter, I found it about 6 inches underground. She is back above ground and reset beside my Great Grandfather J C Prater. I have used that probe to find several buried pieces of broken stones and slot bases.

Another of my family that I was not aware of was the Williamson Powell family. Their daughter Mary Jane (Molly) married my Great Grandfather Samuel Y Lane. They have 6 children and 1 son-in-law (Robert S Phillips) buried in the family plot. Three of the boys, Rufus, Thomas and James, and son-in-law Robert Phillips, joined the Miss 42nd Infantry, CO B in the Civil War. Robert was wounded at Gettysburg and died 3 days later. Thomas was taken prisoner and later released. Rufus did make it home from the war. He married Margaret Baxter in 1850. Have not found much information on James. The entire Williamson family graves (with the exception of Thomas) have been restored. Thomas' headstone was broken. Have not found all of it. We have applied to the VA for a new monument.

Another side of this work is I have reconnected with a long lost cousin and found another that I did not know existed. We appreciate all of the support from people interested in Surretts Cemetery and looking forward to getting started in 2026

11/11/2025

Completed restoration of twin boys Daniel Webster and Henry Clay Robertson's monument. This is the first known documented grave in Surretts. According to their father's journal, Daniel and Henry were born October 16, 1853 and died several hours later.

Their monument was broken. We leveled the slot base, epoxied the two pieces back together and filled in cracks with a mixture of fine marble sand and epoxy. Cleaning is ongoing.

Their parents were Littleberry Tillman and Rhoda Elizabeth West Robertson. Mr Robertson moved to Marshall County Mississippi in 1840 from Limestone County Alabama. He married Rhoda in Hernando, Mississippi on March 6, 1849 and they made their home in Arkabutla. He was a farmer. When the Civil War broke out he joined the Home Guard. This Company abandoned and he joined the 2nd Mississippi Regment commanded by Capt O. F. West.

Upon returning from the Civil War he was elected Justice of the Peace and held that office for 12 years. When Tate County was created in 1873 the Robertsons moved to Senatobia. In 1874 he was elected Tax Collector for Tate County and worked in the Circuit and County Clerks office. The family moved to Gonzales Texas in 1876 and he died there in 1901.

10/25/2025

Leander Campbell Underwood was born August 10, 1825 in Alabama. He married Lucinda Catherine "Cattie" Hood in Morgan Alabama Nov 4, 1858. A son, John Oliver Underwood was born Dec 27, 1865 in Memphis Tennessee and Lucinda Catherine died Dec 1865 in Shelby County Tennessee. Assume she died in childbirth. Have found no burial info for her.

Leander married Emily Frances Powell, daughter of Williamson and Martha Washington Powell, my great great grandparents, on March 5, 1868. They had one son, William C Underwood. Leander served in the Civil War, Third Cavalry, M-Z AND Third Cavalry Reserves. He died June 22, 1894.

The base stone on Leander's monument was deteriorated beyond repair and the next stone was cracked. I constructed a new concrete base stone, epoxied and sealed off the cracked stone and reassembled the monument

10/14/2025

Sprayed and brushed this monument for the first time in Sept 2024 with D2 (pic #3). No additional cleaning was done. Pic #2 was taken a few months later. Pic #1 was taken today. This is just an example of how little effort it takes to clean the monuments of your loved ones. Other recommended cleaners are Endurance and Wet and Forget. These are biological cleaners and not harmful to the stones. They take time to work. Depending on the level of debris you may have to apply additional cleaning solution a few months after first application. NEVER USE CLOROX ON MONUMENTS.

Address

9852 Arkabutla Road
Coldwater, MS
38618

Website

https://cdm17313.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/frlib/id/5208

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Surretts Cemetery Preservation posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Want your place of worship to be the top-listed Place Of Worship in Coldwater?