A pre-Civil War era cemetery approximately eight miles south of Forest on Hopewell Road has been destroyed to make way for a hunting camp.
Bobby Wilkerson, who’s great-great-grandparents, Emily “Milly” Epting Crout and Jacob Crout, are some of the family members buried there, said last week that he wants the cemetery returned to the original state.
“I’m hoping we can get it replaced back as close as possible to what it was without any jail time for anyone,” Wilkerson said.
Wilkerson said he knew nothing about the sale of the property, or the intent of the buyer, until he got a call from his niece. “There was a young lady that lived down there and she drove by and saw it and called my niece and she called me,” he said. Wilkerson also said that it was his understanding that the buyer was told the bodies had been removed from the grave site but that is not true. “No bodies have ever been removed from that cemetery. Someone said there was only one body or two, but there other people that are buried there. Some of them are buried outside the fence on the back side”
Records show that Jacob Crout died in 1840 and Milly Crout died in 1865 and were buried in the family cemetery.
Crout said that he had contacted Rep. Tom Miles and had also talked to Scott County Sheriff Mike Lee and hopes the cemetery will soon be restored to it’s original state.
Sheriff Lee told a Jackson television reporter that the land was recently purchased for $10 and the new owner planned to use the grave site for a hunting camp. “They lease property adjacent to this property. And so they were going to make sure that they had a place to stay,” the sheriff said.
Public records show that a Roy Olan Crout Jr., who resides in Oklahoma, sold the land to Brian Keith Short and Daina Leblanc Short, who live in Louisiana for a sum of $10. The deed was recorded April 28 in the Scott County Chancery Clerk’s office
Rep. Miles said he has contacted the Secretary of State’s office who referred him to the Mississippi Attorney General’s office and he has since forwarded all the pertinent information to them.
“Tom Miles told me as soon as they come up with a conclusion over there they will get back to me,” Wilkerson said.
