In the 1820s after the Creek Indians vacated the area we now call Historic Brookhaven, John Leroy Evins and his wife Nancy settled here. By the 1830s, the land had passed to brothers Harris and Solomon Goodwin before it ultimately was sold off and became the neighborhood we now know. Both Nancy Evins and Harris Solomon, along with other members of their families, are buried in the Nancy Creek Primitive Baptist Church Cemetary. (Note, the church’s graveyard uses  “Cemetary” in its name instead of the preferred spelling of “cemetery.”)  The cemetery is just a little north of Historic Brookhaven, not too far from the intersection of Peachtree and Redding Roads.

 

Established in 1826, the cemetery is one of the oldest in the Atlanta area and includes the grave of a Revolutionary War veteran, William Reeve. Nancy Evins’ grave is unmarked as is that of her daughter Georgiann Evins House. The gravestones of Nancy’s son William H. Crawford Evins and his wife Nancy Elliott Johnston Evins Jett (she remarried following William’s death in 1858) are still standing.

 

Harris Goodwin’s headstone also survived as has that of his wife Emily Dodgen Goodwin. Several of their children’s graves can still be found in Nancy Creek Primitive Baptist Church’s cemetery. Records of a son who died at age seven indicate his remains lie there, but in an unmarked grave. Harris’s father, Solomon Sr., is reportedly buried  in the cemetery as well.

 

Other settlers of DeKalb county are buried at Nancy Creek Primitive Baptist Church Cemetary. Tombstones from the Powell, Johnson, Jones, and Williams families are among them. John Yancey Flowers, a major in the Confederate Army, is buried in the cemetery.

 

The cemetery has 212 memorials, according the website Find a Grave. Some graves are marked only by a metal plaque and grave number. Others have tombstones, intact or broken and illegible. There are several family plots as well as grave boxes.

 

Since its inception in 1826, the cemetery has been modified and some graves moved. The railroad came through in 1871. A MARTA line runs along the back of the cemetery and graves were moved to make way for it.

 

The University of Georgia archaeology website indicates two physical anthropology studies related to grave relocation and the MARTA North Line. One was in 1985 and one in 2015.

 

Nancy Creek Primitive Baptist Church Cemetary’s address is 1680 Eighth Street in Chamblee. The cemetery is fenced, but you can pass through an unlocked gate to walk around the area. The church, which sits across the road, was established in 1824 and still holds services every Sunday at 10:30 a.m. A sign in front reads: “Visitors welcome. Members wanted.”