The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana), 13 Feb 1883, Tue
"GOD'S ACRE"
SOMETHING OF THE LITTLE GRAVEYARD BELOW GOODRICH'S LANDING, LA.
THE ENCROACHMENT OF THE RIVER ON THE HALLLOWED SPOT.

"It was understood that the graveyards at Napoleon, Ark., Lake Providence, La., and Goodrich's Landing, were caving in the river, and the caskets picked up at Kleinston and Delta were supposed to have come from some one of these cemeteries. The officers of the Belle Memphis reported them as from Goodrich's Landing."

The reporter in order to get within as near and easy reach of the graveyard as possible, requested to be landed at Pecan Grove, three miles from Goodrich's Landing, and within one of the object of his consideration.

At 2 o'clock Sunday morning, an hour when graveyards yawn, the reporter was deposited safely at the Grove, where Mr. George Foster, present owner of Pecan Grove plantation, received him hospitably, and for the balance of the night his sleep was sweet and unbroken.

Early on the Sabbath morning, accomanied by Mr. Boswell, the reporter set out for the graveyard. Originally and until recently this quiet home of the dead, comprising one acre of level ground occupying the most elevated and beautiful site in all that section of the country, was almost inclosed by a thick wood. Now its rapidly encroaching waters have carried off at least half of the cemetery, disentombing bodies and swallowing up numerous handsome monuments, tombs, vaults, etc., in its rapacious maw. The monuments are now no longer to be seen. But a few tottering tablets remain, covered with moss and mould of years and wreathed in frames of tangled vines. The neat iron palings surrounding nearly every lot in the cemetery are rusted, broken and sunken out of posistion. A few tombs are yet remaining, but they are defaced, and in several cases badly shattered, exposing to view the precious bones of those who rested within. Quite a number of coffins are protruding from the bank, some half way out, some not so far, and others disentombed. In one instance a coffin had caved with the bank into the river, but lodged on a drift pile in the eddy below, with the lid off, a skeleton was exposed. A very handsome metallic casket was picked up as it drifted down the river Sunday last, several hundred yards below the cemetery. It had been washed into the river with a large portion of the bank the previous evening. The face plate was not taken off, but the coffin was carried back to the cemetery and deposited in an open vault some distance from the bank. The coffins taken out of the river here and at Delta, according to the statement of Mr. Boswell and others, were drifting around in the eddy near the graveyard for eight or ten days.

Including those in tombs, vaults and graves, there are not more than fifty bodies now remaining in this graveyard at the present writing. Of these, we find a number of the Newman family, some of whom had been interred there as far back as 1828. There are also members of the Beard family, Nicholsons, Deasons, Ledbetters, Eastons, Goods, Pelhams, Joneses and Kirkendalls buried here; all notably wealthy and influential people in Louisiana in their time.

To Dr. J. H. D. Bomar we are indebted for the following history of this interesting locality: The Pecan Grove Plantation, upon which the graveyard is located, was first settled by John Buck in 1825, and sold to A. W. Ledbetter at a subsequent date. It remained in that family until purchased by the late William Waller, of Chicago, who sold it to Dr. J. H. D. Bomar, in 1850. Dr. B. sold it to James Railey in 1858. The graveyard had been donated to the public by Mr. John Buck, the first settler. It was the principal and only burying ground for the neighborhood up to 1858, and was about a quarter mile from the river. Until within the last year or so it was never known to cave within the memory of the oldest inhabitant. It was very handsomely kept. There were a great many persons buried there, the majority of whom were extremely wealthy, and it is probable that the families to which they belonged have in almost evey instance become extinct.

The plantation is now ownerd by Judge W. G. Wiley, of Lake Providence, and is called the Raleigh Place, though at one time known as Pecan Grove. - Vicksburg Herald, Feb. 10.