William Seale Cemetery
Butler County, Alabama, USA
Between 1817 and 1854, James Seale and his sons Anderson and William, and William's son Wilson M. Seale, patented almost the entire acreage of Section 17. The Seales also patented adjacent tracts of land in Sections 18 and 20.
In the 1853 Butler County tax list, William Seale owned 310 acres of land, all in Precinct 9 and most in Section 17, T10N, R14E, with the exception of a small tract in Section 20 (the section that contains the Liberty community and is traversed by Alabama Highway 10). William's brother Anderson Seale had 445 acres in 1853, nearly all in Section 17, as well.
In "Family Maps of Butler County, Alabama," by Gregory A. Boyd (Arphax Publishing Co., 2006), the William Seale Cemetery is mistakenly listed as being in Section 7, T10N, R14E. "Butler County in the Nineteenth Century" by Marilyn Davis Hahn (1978) gives the cemetery's location as Section 18, T10N, R14E. However, a November 2021 cemetery visit and survey with a registered forester and a neighboring landowner, as well as GPS coordinates, confirm that the William Seale Cemetery is in Section 17.
In 1935, most of the Seale property in this area, including the family cemetery, was owned by Mary Amanda Hartsfield Seale Connor (as "Mrs. M. A. Connor") and her daughters ("Mrs. J. R. Cheatham," "Mary I. Thompson" and "Mrs. Flora Thorpe"). Mary Hartsfield married William Seale's son Ransom in 1874; he died in 1885 and was buried in the family cemetery. Mary married Thomas Lane Connor in 1891, and lived until November 1, 1935.
The oldest burial with a surviving headstone in the William Seale Cemetery is that of William's wife, Rulincy Hilson Seale, who died September 22, 1883. However, unmarked graves undoubtedly exist since William and Rulincy lived for decades in this area, as did several of their children and other relatives. The same four tombstones that were surveyed in 1973 by a Butler County Historical Society volunteer were still standing (though two are broken) in 2021.
Rulincy's obituary was published October 3, 1883, in The Greenville Advocate. It said she died September 22, and had lived "within five miles of Greenville" ever since her 1826 marriage to William Seale in Butler County, with the exception of two years in Lowndes County.
An obituary was published for William Seale in The Greenville Advocate on April 24, 1901. It said, in part: "At the age of ninety-four years, Mr. William Seale passed away a week ago and was laid to rest in the family burial ground several miles from this place."
A 1973 survey of this Seale family cemetery was published in The Butler County Historical Society Quarterly (Vol. 16, No. 4; December 1980). William's dates on his tombstone had been transcribed by Jeanette Middleton as: William Seale / b. 28 Mch. 1807 / d. 16 Apr. 1904. However, Mrs. Middleton obviously made an error and misread "1901" as "1904." William Seale's death date was definitely April 16, 1901. The other headstone dates were copied correctly in the 1973 survey.
Between 1817 and 1854, James Seale and his sons Anderson and William, and William's son Wilson M. Seale, patented almost the entire acreage of Section 17. The Seales also patented adjacent tracts of land in Sections 18 and 20.
In the 1853 Butler County tax list, William Seale owned 310 acres of land, all in Precinct 9 and most in Section 17, T10N, R14E, with the exception of a small tract in Section 20 (the section that contains the Liberty community and is traversed by Alabama Highway 10). William's brother Anderson Seale had 445 acres in 1853, nearly all in Section 17, as well.
In "Family Maps of Butler County, Alabama," by Gregory A. Boyd (Arphax Publishing Co., 2006), the William Seale Cemetery is mistakenly listed as being in Section 7, T10N, R14E. "Butler County in the Nineteenth Century" by Marilyn Davis Hahn (1978) gives the cemetery's location as Section 18, T10N, R14E. However, a November 2021 cemetery visit and survey with a registered forester and a neighboring landowner, as well as GPS coordinates, confirm that the William Seale Cemetery is in Section 17.
In 1935, most of the Seale property in this area, including the family cemetery, was owned by Mary Amanda Hartsfield Seale Connor (as "Mrs. M. A. Connor") and her daughters ("Mrs. J. R. Cheatham," "Mary I. Thompson" and "Mrs. Flora Thorpe"). Mary Hartsfield married William Seale's son Ransom in 1874; he died in 1885 and was buried in the family cemetery. Mary married Thomas Lane Connor in 1891, and lived until November 1, 1935.
The oldest burial with a surviving headstone in the William Seale Cemetery is that of William's wife, Rulincy Hilson Seale, who died September 22, 1883. However, unmarked graves undoubtedly exist since William and Rulincy lived for decades in this area, as did several of their children and other relatives. The same four tombstones that were surveyed in 1973 by a Butler County Historical Society volunteer were still standing (though two are broken) in 2021.
Rulincy's obituary was published October 3, 1883, in The Greenville Advocate. It said she died September 22, and had lived "within five miles of Greenville" ever since her 1826 marriage to William Seale in Butler County, with the exception of two years in Lowndes County.
An obituary was published for William Seale in The Greenville Advocate on April 24, 1901. It said, in part: "At the age of ninety-four years, Mr. William Seale passed away a week ago and was laid to rest in the family burial ground several miles from this place."
A 1973 survey of this Seale family cemetery was published in The Butler County Historical Society Quarterly (Vol. 16, No. 4; December 1980). William's dates on his tombstone had been transcribed by Jeanette Middleton as: William Seale / b. 28 Mch. 1807 / d. 16 Apr. 1904. However, Mrs. Middleton obviously made an error and misread "1901" as "1904." William Seale's death date was definitely April 16, 1901. The other headstone dates were copied correctly in the 1973 survey.
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Butler County, Alabama, USA
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- Percent photographed91%
- Percent with GPS0%
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Liberty, Butler County, Alabama, USA
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- Added: 1 Jan 2000
- Find a Grave Cemetery ID: 27088
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