Our Darling
Albert Hemphill
Born Oct. 26, 1871
Died Nov. 5, 1907
Baby
Located in Mulberry United Methodist Church Cemetery in Macon County, North Carolina, just across the Georgia-North Carolina state line from Dillard, GA. Take Hwy. 441 north across the state line into NC. Turn left onto Mulberry Road (well south of Otto). The church and cemetery are on the right just past Newman’s Chapel, which is visible from the highway.
When I originally surveyed Mulberry United Methodist Church Cemetery in June 2000, Albert’s stone was buried and I could not read the inscription. A recent visit resulted in the above photograph.
I suspect Albert may have been the illegitimate son of Sallie Hemphill, a daughter of Joseph and Caroline (Hopper) Hemphill, and a granddaughter of Samuel Hopper, an early settler whose Rabun County, Georgia, property adjoined the state line with North Carolina. The Hopper family associated and intermarried with many of the more prominent families who lived along this stretch of the border, including the Nortons and Bradleys. Sallie’s known daughter, also illegitimate, was Nancy Hemphill who married George Howard, a member of another prominent area family.
I’m a bit puzzled by Albert’s marker, however. He was thirty-six when he died, most definitely not a baby, contrary to the stone’s inscription. Perhaps the family wished to have a marker and this one was the most convenient stone, for some unknown reason, or perhaps it was the only one available or affordable to the family. Something we may never know the reason behind, but a puzzler nonetheless.
