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I am not a volunteer or have I been over at Sweetwater Mansion but I want you people to know that the lady that registered it with the State of Alabama would you believe they are not allowing her or several other of the volunteers access to the cemetery to document and start cleanup.I have a mutual friend of one of these volunteers and they told me this at the grocer store today. All I can say is what kind of people would not want it fixed.?

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Section 35-1-4

Right of access to cemetery on privately owned or leased property.

(a) Owners and lessees of private land on which a cemetery, graves, or burial sites are located shall have a duty to allow ingress and egress to the cemetery, graves, or burial sites by (1) family members, friends, or descendants of deceased persons buried there; (2) any cemetery plot owner; and (3) any person engaged in genealogical, historical, or cultural research, who has given reasonable notice to the owner of record or to the lessees, or both.

(b)(1) The right of ingress and egress granted by this section shall be reasonable and limited to the purposes of visiting graves or burial sites, maintaining the gravesite or burial site or cemetery, or conducting genealogical, historical, or cultural research, or, in the case of a plot owner, burying a deceased person in the plot.

(2) The owner or lessee of the land has the right to designate the frequency, hours, and duration of the access and the access route, if no traditional access route is obviously visible from a view of the property, provided that the designation is reasonable for the purposes set out above.

(c)(1) Any person entering onto private land pursuant to this section shall be responsible for conducting himself or herself in a manner that does not damage the private land, cemetery, gravesite, or burial site, and shall be liable to the owner or lessee of the property for any damage caused as the result of his or her access.

(2) The landowner and lessee, in the absence of gross negligence or willful misconduct, shall be immune from liability in any civil suit, action, or cause of action arising out of the access granted pursuant to this section.

(Act 2007-408, p. 836, §1.)

 

 

The AHC issues permits to persons or companies who seek to restore, preserve or relocate

human burial remains, human skeletal remains, funerary objects, or otherwise disturb, a

place of burial that is 75 years or older. This authority is given to the AHC in Section

13A-7-23.1(d) of the Code of Alabama 1975:

“The Alabama Historical Commission, to provide for the lawful preservation,

investigation, restoration, or relocation of human burial remains, human skeletal

remains, or funerary objects, shall promulgate rules and regulations for the

issuance of a permit and may issue a permit to persons or companies who seek to restore, preserve or relocate human burial remains, human skeletal remains,

funerary objects, or otherwise disturb, a place of burial.”

Generally, the AHC issues permits for two types of work in cemeteries:

1) Preservation (e.g. cleaning/repairing grave markers; removing heavy

vegetation; removing/erecting fences; any ground disturbing activity, etc.)

2) Relocations

Applicants must fill out a Permit Application. Once the party requesting the permit has

provided the AHC with all required information, the request is reviewed. Once approved,

a permit is granted in the form of a letter from the AHC. It is important to understand that

a permit does not imply permission from the landowner, nor does it imply that all laws

have been followed by the permittee. It is the responsibility of the party requesting the

permit to make sure that they are compliant with all laws.

**********************************************************************************

For more information on any of the Alabama Historical Commission’s Cemetery Programs,

please contact Lee Anne Wofford, Cemetery Program Coordinator at (334)230-2659 or leeanne.wofford@preserveala.org.

Originally Posted by CrustyMac:

What exactly are they wanting to do at the cemetery?

================

 

I haven’t a clue

The cemetery is kept clean. The multi- piece tombstones are scattered.

I don’t think the commission will permit just anybody out there moving huge stones about.

There is no way to get equipment in there.

There have been several people with credentials claim they were going to help but so-far that has not materialized.

It’s something that takes professional assistance in research and main-strength.

A novice could get someone crushed to death.

Originally Posted by CrustyMac:

What exactly are they wanting to do at the cemetery?

Crusty, I have never set foot on the property, but I can tell you what I have been told. The main cemetery has family graves and has been cleaned up to a large degree. From the pictures I've seen, there is still tombstone damage and obviously it would require an expert with the right equipment to remedy that.

 

There is a second part to the cemetery where slaves, household help, and probably poor neighbors are buried. I have been told that approximately 80 graves have been identified there, most not marked. This is overgrown and does need to be cleaned up. Again, I'm sure this info is far from perfect, but those who have viewed the family cemetery (for a fee) have not seen the more desolate parts of the grave yard. I think most would feel as I do that it should also be cleaned at least.

I agree the household workers, if any were buried there should be given the same concern as the known cemetery. I’ve tramped over a lot of the property with others and the question still is: where are the other burial cites? I assure you no one knows at this time. I’ve been led on more than one wild goose chase by those who know where the cemetery is located. We have been promised help by reliable experts to aid in the reassembly of the known tombstones but the expense of coming here seems to hinder that effort.

It’s better that It’s left alone until such time experts can assist.

You just can’t allow someone to go grubbing out into the woods surrounding the cemetery and dig up some plant that has existed for a hundred years that might have been planted there by a child’s grave or loved one.

The interest in this property is new to the community and cannot be hurried at this point.

If you are civic minded go to the Pond Spring plantation that you actually own , raise hell and dig around. See how far you get. Sweetwater is still private property.

I used to volunteer there and the director and I started a conversation about the cemetery. She proceeded to tell me that Brahan was a vampire and he was buried in an iron vault so that he would not be able to escape it. This woman is nuts. I arrived there one day to volunteer and she said that she just got off of the phone with the owner and she (the owner) had just talked to the vampire diaries (which is a TV show) and had found out that Brahan was a descendant of Bram Stoker. If she had of stopped and thought about what she was saying before spouting out this BS she would have realized Bram Stoker was a novelist who wrote a fictional book you all might be familiar with. Dracula. Also, John Brahan was a veteran of the war in 1812 so how is Brahan a descendant of Bram Stoker when Stoker was born in 1847? This is the kind of crap that goes on at sweetwater unfortunately. They could care less about the cemetery which is a dirty shame.

Originally Posted by BenDover:

"I used to volunteer there and the director and I started a conversation about the cemetery. She proceeded to tell me that Brahan was a vampire and he was buried in an iron vault so that he would not be able to escape it. This woman is nuts. I arrived there one day to volunteer and she said that she just got off of the phone with the owner and she (the owner) had just talked to the vampire diaries (which is a TV show) and had found out that Brahan was a descendant of Bram Stoker. If she had of stopped and thought about what she was saying before spouting out this BS she would have realized Bram Stoker was a novelist who wrote a fictional book you all might be familiar with. Dracula. Also, John Brahan was a veteran of the war in 1812 so how is Brahan a descendant of Bram Stoker when Stoker was born in 1847? This is the kind of crap that goes on at sweetwater unfortunately. They could care less about the cemetery which is a dirty shame."

WTH? Anybody who had money was buried in an iron coffin in those days. That woman seems like a name dropper to me. A vampire? Do they have a bearded lady and a sword swallower on the dole?

From what I have heard it might as well be a three ring circus. You know it's really sad. There were volunteers there that really worked hard to clean up the place and the director has ran all of them off with her crazy actions. Everything I ever heard come out of her mouth was about how much money she could make or some off the wall crazy talk about her psychic abilities or who was buried in the basement, etc........... Lies all lies.

Well, they're still looking for Jimmy Hoffa...

 

The point is what many of us have been saying for two years. The old home needs someone with money who cares about history and has an IQ over their hip size...okay, thigh size...to run the show. All who have volunteered and maintained how wonderful everything was are now recanting.

 

This has been a hard lesson for some of the younger volunteers to learn, but if you start out with a director and 14 committee members and wind up in less than a year with only two members, plus "director," there are some serious problems. As director, I hope the lady in question kept receipts where she turned the money over to the owner's mother. Otherwise, the IRS may have her on a long list to visit concerning the money taken in.

True. Heaven forbid you make any kind of comment on their facebook page that they might consider negative. They will jump you like a pack of wolves. Especially the blonde one that was taking up money at first Fridays and looks like she lays in the tanning bed all day. Speaking of wolves, maybe they are the werewolves. Hmmmmmmm.......... Could be on to something.

they would love that,just let it be .whats up with that?????people out there are nuts...it needs to be fixed and its going to be................Originally Posted by Magpie:

I agree the household workers, if any were buried there should be given the same concern as the known cemetery. I’ve tramped over a lot of the property with others and the question still is: where are the other burial cites? I assure you no one knows at this time. I’ve been led on more than one wild goose chase by those who know where the cemetery is located. We have been promised help by reliable experts to aid in the reassembly of the known tombstones but the expense of coming here seems to hinder that effort.

It’s better that It’s left alone until such time experts can assist.

You just can’t allow someone to go grubbing out into the woods surrounding the cemetery and dig up some plant that has existed for a hundred years that might have been planted there by a child’s grave or loved one.

The interest in this property is new to the community and cannot be hurried at this point.

If you are civic minded go to the Pond Spring plantation that you actually own , raise hell and dig around. See how far you get. Sweetwater is still private property.

 

what a good day,be so gald when the  sweetwater brahan-patton cemetery opens.and yes its going to.some people dont like it and i dont know why.there are two sisters working hard to get this open.looks like the people at the sweetwater mansion would be happy about this and try to help.makes you ask WHY DONT THEY WANT IT OPEN...............AND THEY ARE NOT HAPPY ABOUT IT..

what is about the people at sweetwater they think they are GOD.they get on there talk bad about people and then get mad when you say something back said u would get it back 10times.they should know.i got on there page last night thats all they do is put people down...and make up  LIES.looks like the director would do something about it,but i think she likes to keep things going.the only bad  group is the people at sweetwater. the two sisters that are working on the sweetwater brahan-patton cemetery all they do is give them a hard time.the director  said it was never going to open and that the name was not the sweetwater brahan-patton cemetery.but sorry to tell you it is by the state law thats the name.and thats just the way it is..and it is going to be open like it or not thats just how it is. and the people and the the director at sweetwater should try to help,not try to stop it.i just dont get it are they mad cause that cant make money off it  or are they just bad people that dont like to see the right thing going on.if u go to there page u can see that only two or three get on there and make post and make up lies and talk bad about people.they never tell u whats going with the house if anything is.they just get together over there to TALK AND TALK. oh but look out now they will have all kinds of post on there page THE ONES THEY MAKE UP AND LIE ABOUT...

Sassy, any of us who ever questioned anything about the so-called renovation were immediately removed from the friends list. Now the Facebook page is private. How many such pages do you know of that use that setting?

 

So...most of us have no idea what the media director says unless it's attached to one of her graphics that are open to view. I have no idea what the director wanted the cemetery to be officially named, but if she had a preference, she should have registered it. Apparently the owner couldn't care less...

 

Are they making plans for another Spook House this October? (And if I believed in ghosts, I would believe the late members of the Brahan/Patton/Weeden families are extremely upset at the home's current use.)

I turned in my volunteer card when the director's stories never added up. All of her bragging about being Elvis' daughter and Mac Davis' lover and werewolves and vampires was bad enough but when she started saying another person in town had surveillance equipment installed to spy on her, I knew she wasn't playing with a full deck. The city aught to investigate that bunch for fraud. Nothing ever got done like they promised. Then they accused two other volunteers of stealing money when the one they have listed as the artist was the one who had the collection jar on her table. The owner should look into what's really going on with the money over there. Just sayin'.

Originally Posted by BenDover:

It makes you wonder if it was a setup when the lady taking admission was robbed the first time they had an event there. Anybody can cry wolf and call the popo.

 

If I knew for sure that all this is going on (not that I don't believe you since I've heard this from too many), I would contact the Alabama Attorney General and try to get an investigation started as to where the money is going. Other than that, someone could turn the owner in to the IRS. It doesn't sound like many records are being kept.

 

I doubt they'll have many paying customers this Halloween. Anyone who wants to see the old home has, and nothing new has been done for them to look at. Did any of y'all read OB's corner on the Buffler Home? Good article.

This is the latest: the two nice ladies who are on a tear to trespass onto the Sweetwater property it seems have enlisted some Bubba from East Florence to restore the cemetery tombstones. His expertise is based on car-motor-pullin’. He throws a rope over a tree limb, ties one end to the car motor and the other end of the rope to the back of a 4-wheeler. Upon the command “take-er-easy now” the 4-wheeler pulls forward and up out of the car comes the motor. The reverse of this is used to re-install the moter except for the command “back-er-up easy now Bubba” and let-er-down. If I holler stop!! “ scotch-er-down“.

The plan at the cemetery is somewhat different in that there are no large trees right over where the large priceless tombstones need to be placed. ‘No hill for a stepper’ sez bubba, we’ll use some ‘some beeches’.

some beeches it seems were wooden poles used back in the day when logging was done with mules. If a log truck became hopelessly stuck in the mud somebody’ud holler “cut us a sum beech bout 20 foot long”. the sum beech’ud be laid at the base of a tree as a lever, the wagon is tied to the sum beech and the team of mules tied to the other end using the tree as a fulcrum the wagon is prized out-uv the mud.

Three or four sum beeches and a 4-wheeler and a hank-a-rope autta-do-it.

Originally Posted by Infomercial:
Originally Posted by BenDover:

It makes you wonder if it was a setup when the lady taking admission was robbed the first time they had an event there. Anybody can cry wolf and call the popo.

 

If I knew for sure that all this is going on (not that I don't believe you since I've heard this from too many), I would contact the Alabama Attorney General and try to get an investigation started as to where the money is going. Other than that, someone could turn the owner in to the IRS. It doesn't sound like many records are being kept.

 

I doubt they'll have many paying customers this Halloween. Anyone who wants to see the old home has, and nothing new has been done for them to look at. Did any of y'all read OB's corner on the Buffler Home? Good article.

Thanks,........

I have set back and watched this topic I cannot believe some of these people who are defending what is going on a Sweetwater Mansion. I know the lady who registered the cemetery through a friend of mine I have watched her and her sister work their selfs to death trying to do what is right and I know that when they were volunteering they were lied to and the love they had for the place was used against them. Well it might be interesting when the fact that the two sisters are descendents of John Brahan comes out Lord help the sisters.

just got a message from sweetwater.lol.said i was part of a committe to save sweetwater,and she warn me what would happen if i got involed with DEVIL GIRL.this is just what im talking about lies.im not on a committe to save sweetwater and dont no devil girl.the only thing im trying to do is help with the cemetery,THE SWEET WATER BRAHAN-PATTON CEMETERY.and they dont want it saved they want it to stay just like it is now.just like the house.so they can lie to people to get money maybe the I ,R,S, SHOILD BE CALLED AND I CAN THINK OF SOME PEOPLE TO BE CALLED TO STOP THIS.

I'm not from around here, so my opinion doesn't count for much, but here's a thought:

 

Why the hell doesn't everybody either volunteer like everybody down here likes to brag about so much and just descend on the place en masse and fix it up-OR S T F U and go back home and get bombed or high or whatever it is you do instead of living in the real world and just let the place fall down like all the other old buildings in Florence seem to be doing.

 

Seems that sitting around sniping at each other isn't accomplishing anything.....

 

Or was that the idea in the first place?

 

  Either way the end result will be the same-another half-building/half-rubble pile to sit and moulder for years.

 

But it might have a historical marker in front of it.

 

Just sayin'. 

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