February 1, 2008,

Concerning the old Afro-American Cemetery at 225 Old Siam Road.

(For aid in reference, a marked copy of the tax map of the grounds is included.)

Several years ago, while researching the origins of my property and boundaries,
I decided to do look for the deed to the Afro-American cemetery that
had always been across the street from the home where I grew up.
I recall the last burial being in the late 1960's or early 1970's. The cemetery,
generally on a sporadic maintenance schedule, was last tended
about ten years ago. About the same time, I took a chain saw and cut
and removed most of the trees on the Southern half.The cemetery is inactive but
not abandoned. Most burials seem to have taken place on the Southern half of the
Eastern half I have discovered that the existing deed for the cemetery is incorrect.
In 1915, a survey was made that added several corners to the cemetery property
creating a boundary around the Western half and ignores altogether the Eastern half.
The Western half appears to have but three or four burial sites. Previously,
deeds only specified two points as corners to the cemetery. The two specified
corners are common to both the 1915 survey and previous deeds.
The specification of only the two pointsis somewhat ambiguous but implies the
Eastern half was not considered part of the cemetery. A fact confounding the
research is the units of measure, poles.
The pole is specified as "likely" to be 16.5 feet. When the deeds for the 100 year
period are laid out on a computer, the begin and end points do not meet.
Visual inspection bears out the errors.
The two lots are adjacent strips of land running North-to-South.
The Eastern lot is a peninsula of land roughly the same size as the cemetery lot.
The Western lot is isolated and listed as cemetery ground in the tax rolls and maps.
The Western lot is specified as the cemetery, however, the lot on the right contains the
vast majority of the burials dating from as early as 1895.

There are two reasons for bringing this to the court's attention.
1. The properties were sold recently and have been built upon.
The community is encroaching on the grounds.

I believe re-working the deed is needed. I also believe the northern access should
be restored or right-of-way established for future maintenance expeditions.

Jim Julian
228 Old Siam Rd.
Elizabethton, TN 37643

website : http://jimjulian.ddns.net