About Us

Sylvester Cemetery began as a family plot on land owned by the Terry family, circa 1838. A church was built on adjacent land in 1873, and it eventually became Sylvester Baptist Church in 1873. Over the years, the Terry descendants sold off parcels of land  to other neighboring families, namely the Warren, and McWilliams families, that joined their family plots with the Terry's, eventually amounting to about 13 acres.

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Today more than 1,400 persons are laid to rest at the Sylvester Cemetery. Interred at Sylvester Cemetery are 15 Civil War veterans, two from the Spanish American War, and about 50 others from the first and second World Wars, the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

 

Also interred at Sylvester are several doctors, ministers and at least four law enforcement officers, including Jake Hall, a former Sheriff of DeKalb County, along with his wife Annie Hall, who was the county jailer.

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Perhaps the most well known figure buried here is Fiddlin’ John Carson, who is widely considered to be the Father of Country and Western Music. He was the first to cut a country music record, first to cut an entire album, first to have his own radio program (in 1923), and the first to travel widely giving country music performances. He was elected to the Georgia Country-Western Hall of Fame in 1984.

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Today, Sylvester Cemetery is being restored and maintained by the Historic Sylvester Cemetery Foundation, Inc. after generations of neglect and being almost totally abandoned in the 1970’s. With the support of family, friends, and neighbors in the East Atlanta community, the foundation hopes to be able to maintain and preserve the rich heritage and absorbing history that has been passed down through the centuries.