BARLAR, William Henry, born about 1823 & died cir Mar 23, 1897. (Husband of Susan Frances Phillips and father of 10 children)
Recent finds in the records of Giles County reveals there was a Newspaper and book record of a William Barlor who died about Mar 23, 1897 in the Brick Church Community with a condition the newspaper called La Grippe. Accordingly he was about 75 years of age and was buried in the Hayward Cemetery. Since this Marsh-Haywood Cemetery is very near his last known residence over west of I-65 (can be seen from this cemetery) I believe this to be the cemetery and the name Hayward Cemetery was a corruption of the name Haywood. A study of the earlier name used for this cemetery may be helpful to determine if the name Marsh was tacked on later, but certainly Marsh is the most prevalent surname here.
It is not known if a stone can be found here. The old time Barlar's who died out between 1960-1990 say William was interred in an old cemetery under a memorial stone which is now supposedly near Interstate 65 & Highway 31 Alt. In the 1940s a farmer purchased the property and razed the cemetery and carted the stones off to the backside of the property and buried them in a ditch to create more tillable land area. This may be true if Barlar is interred in another small nearby cemetery, but it is my conclusion he is here. In this cemetery there is no clear evidence of gross criminal behavior. We see the usual abuse related to neglect and cattle. There was some abusive piling up of the common stones that mark graves (picture above) and damage from livestock carousing the cemetery and relieving their itch by rubbing on the stones causing the stones to dislocate and fall. Beyond that the trees and growth caused most of the damage when their roots push up and caused the stones to become dislocated and fall. Large trees fall and crush the stones as can readily be seen in this cemetery from the photos. Since the unlawful act mentioned above is unproven I will not mention names here, but there was a name given and it is known in wide circles of the Barlar family and the historical society of Giles County, but affects no living person today that I know of.
In the interest of showing both sides Ms. Ward who has something to do with this property today said she heard at one time there was a lost cemetery on the other side of Richland Creek also on the north side of Hwy 31 Alt. She further said in earlier times a farmer by the name of Scrapper Jones did destroy it. Further she said today they are a bit superstitious about that land as it seems to spawn bad things such as diseases & lost crops etc. so they do not use it anymore. When I tried to pinpoint the place from here she grew defensive and I did not get an answer. Obviously converting such hearsay into fact 65 years or so later is difficult.
Photos dated 29 Nov 2005 & 17 Jul 2008. Information by Wayne Austin, 23 Jul 2008. Listed here by Wayne Austin Great Great Grandson of William H. Barlar who is one of thousands of descendents around the country today 2008.
