County Line AME Zion Church Cemetery

Bullock County, Alabama African American Research  County Line AME Zion Church Cemetery

Background
I have been researching my family tree since my days as a teenager at the breakfast table questioning my paternal grandmother about her childhood. Those efforts only fed my interest and enthusiasm. My continued research led me to libraries, archives, county roads and eventually cemeteries. The research scope broadened as I took in the in-laws, neighbors and connected community members. While visiting the Alabama Department of Archives and History back in early 2000 I noted that there were no families of color represented on the shelves though I found several handwritten efforts by others. I committed right then and there to change that. Through the help and encouragement of Frazine Taylor, a librarian at the archives I documented my first cemetery, County Line AME Zion Cemetery located in Bullock County, Alabama.

That early documentation is now in the hands of the Burton Historical Collection in Detroit, Michigan and the Alabama Department of Archives and History in Montgomery, Alabama. Burton has since bound it and placed it on the shelf. Alabama’s system requires that they retrieve it for you from the back. I noted some time ago that it can also be found through WorldCat if you type in “Dara Tolbert”. That early documentation can also be found at WorldCat.

Location
County Line AME Zion Cemetery is located near Union Springs in Bullock County, Alabama just off County Road 66. It is adjacent to County Line AME Zion Church. Union Springs was known as the Field Trial Capitol of the World in its heyday. The surrounding communities existed from farming. Some areas were great producers of cotton, peaches and pecans. It is still basically a rural area with residents who can trace their heritage into slavery.

History
When I spoke with Ezra Ivey Hatcher, a member and church historian she talked of information that had been passed down to her by Brother John Austin. According to Ms. Hatcher back in 1875 the original name was Black Chapel and it was located in Macon County between the Seaborn Railroad and the Bullock County Line Railroad approximately one and one half miles from Armstrong. The lines ran through Montgomery and Russell Counties. The church was not a physical building, nor a church in the way we think of them today. It was a bush arbor where early families such as the Austins and Sneeds met to worship. This area was considered the church and therefore as family members died they were laid to rest in the immediate area. There were no formal funerals as we know them today, no limousines and no fancy head stones but ceremonies none the less. Family members found their resting place amongst the bushes where they once worshipped. (One day I hope to locate those graves).

Since that time the railroad stopped running, homes have been torn down and the church community eventually moved. The land where families once met to worship and where graves were placed was planted over with pine trees. I am told that today, it is hardly recognizable.

According to the church historian, Milt Edwards, a white land owner gave the church part of his land in Bullock County to build a church and a school. In 1952 under the leadership of Rev. S. J. Thomas the church moved to its present location. A wooden church and school structure were erected. In 1975, under the leadership of Rev. E. D. Marshall the wooden structure was replaced with today's block structure. Eventually the rural schools were abandoned and children were bused to larger schools. The church school was eventually torn down. On today's site one will see the block church structure and the second cemetery.

Contributed by Dara Tolbert Brooks 20 Jun 2014