One Saturday afternoon about 15 years ago a man, William Tate, called and asked me if I had a couple of hours to spare, and if I did would I come to his house and bring a camera and a metal detector. He said he called me because I had good camera's and metal detectors and knew I would be interested in what he wanted me to do and would explain when I got there. He had my curoisity stirred up so I grabbed a camera and a detector and lit out for his house.
When I got there he told me that while deer hunting he had found a lone grave on the highest hill in old Tombigbee River Bottom, that it had a stone with a name and date on it and he wanted me to go with him to take a photo of the stone. He wouldn't tell me the name on the stone, said I would find out when we got there. We got in my truck and he directed me down an old road that once went to a ferry across the river. We drove as far as we could and then walked the last mile or so to the old river run. The river changed it's course in the early 1900's so the hill with the grave is now on the old river run. Now it's basically just a long, narrow and crooked slough but it once was a major transportation route when the first settlers came in this country.
It was a pretty rough walk going in, briars, bushes and mosquitos from the stagnant water in the old river run gave us a bad time but we finally got to the hill. The hill is steep and tall, and the top of it is pretty small, but right in the middle was a rough stone that had been chiseled from rock with less than adequate tools. I pretty much ran around to where I could see what was on it and saw the name chiseled into the old stone.
<center><b>Eliza Jane Reigh</b></center><center><b><i>died 1838</i></b></center>A woman? I asked William if he knew anything about it but he said no, that he knew I had some relatives, and ancestors, named Ray and thought I might be able to find out something about Eliza Jane and how she came to be buried on that lonely hill top.
To say I was fascinated would be an understatement, I couldn't wait to get started on trying to find out about Eliza Jane. I took a couple of photos of the stone, still have them here somewhere but they're buried deep in some box of photos, and asked him why he wanted me to bring a detector. He said he would like to know if there was anything on the hill besides the grave, so I put the camera away and turned on the detector. I scanned the top of the hill in all metal mode and the only signal was just about where the foot of the grave would be. It was a big signal, and deep, but discriminated out in disc mode when iron was rejected so whatever it was, or is, had to be iron. William wanted to dig it up, I had my digging tools, including a small shovel, in my truck but I told him no way would I dig that close to a grave. William is the kind of guy who doesn't mind digging in indian burial sites and I figured he would come back and dig it up. I told him I better not hear of him digging it later, that was a criminal offense and I wanted no part of it.
I started trying to research Eliza Jane, what happened and why she was buried on that hill but had very little success. I did talked to an old guy in his 80's, a Mr Ray that was a third cousin of my father. Can't remember his first name darn it but he told me the original spelling of our Ray ancestors was Reigh, the same as Eliza Jane's last name. I contacted the guy that puts out a local quarterly historical magazine to see if he could help. He knows more about local history, and the people involved, than anyone else in the county but he wasn't much help other than verifying that the original spelling of local Rays was in fact Reigh. He did a write up in his magazine about the grave and I was hoping someone who read it would have a little info but no luck again.
I haven't given up on Eliza Jane and hopefully after I retire next year I will have time to look into it further. Right now I think she was one of my ancestors, or married to one, as all of the Rays in this area before 50 years ago are at least distant relatives, and that she died from some unknown cause or was killed by the Creek indians while traveling down the river with her folks and was buried on the hill to keep the floods from washing her grave away.
I would very much like to find out more about Eliza Jane. She's been alone on that lonesome hilltop for almost 170 years, with no company but panthers, bears and coyotes, and for some reason I feel if I can find out more about her it would bring her back into the family.
When I got there he told me that while deer hunting he had found a lone grave on the highest hill in old Tombigbee River Bottom, that it had a stone with a name and date on it and he wanted me to go with him to take a photo of the stone. He wouldn't tell me the name on the stone, said I would find out when we got there. We got in my truck and he directed me down an old road that once went to a ferry across the river. We drove as far as we could and then walked the last mile or so to the old river run. The river changed it's course in the early 1900's so the hill with the grave is now on the old river run. Now it's basically just a long, narrow and crooked slough but it once was a major transportation route when the first settlers came in this country.
It was a pretty rough walk going in, briars, bushes and mosquitos from the stagnant water in the old river run gave us a bad time but we finally got to the hill. The hill is steep and tall, and the top of it is pretty small, but right in the middle was a rough stone that had been chiseled from rock with less than adequate tools. I pretty much ran around to where I could see what was on it and saw the name chiseled into the old stone.
<center><b>Eliza Jane Reigh</b></center><center><b><i>died 1838</i></b></center>A woman? I asked William if he knew anything about it but he said no, that he knew I had some relatives, and ancestors, named Ray and thought I might be able to find out something about Eliza Jane and how she came to be buried on that lonely hill top.
To say I was fascinated would be an understatement, I couldn't wait to get started on trying to find out about Eliza Jane. I took a couple of photos of the stone, still have them here somewhere but they're buried deep in some box of photos, and asked him why he wanted me to bring a detector. He said he would like to know if there was anything on the hill besides the grave, so I put the camera away and turned on the detector. I scanned the top of the hill in all metal mode and the only signal was just about where the foot of the grave would be. It was a big signal, and deep, but discriminated out in disc mode when iron was rejected so whatever it was, or is, had to be iron. William wanted to dig it up, I had my digging tools, including a small shovel, in my truck but I told him no way would I dig that close to a grave. William is the kind of guy who doesn't mind digging in indian burial sites and I figured he would come back and dig it up. I told him I better not hear of him digging it later, that was a criminal offense and I wanted no part of it.
I started trying to research Eliza Jane, what happened and why she was buried on that hill but had very little success. I did talked to an old guy in his 80's, a Mr Ray that was a third cousin of my father. Can't remember his first name darn it but he told me the original spelling of our Ray ancestors was Reigh, the same as Eliza Jane's last name. I contacted the guy that puts out a local quarterly historical magazine to see if he could help. He knows more about local history, and the people involved, than anyone else in the county but he wasn't much help other than verifying that the original spelling of local Rays was in fact Reigh. He did a write up in his magazine about the grave and I was hoping someone who read it would have a little info but no luck again.
I haven't given up on Eliza Jane and hopefully after I retire next year I will have time to look into it further. Right now I think she was one of my ancestors, or married to one, as all of the Rays in this area before 50 years ago are at least distant relatives, and that she died from some unknown cause or was killed by the Creek indians while traveling down the river with her folks and was buried on the hill to keep the floods from washing her grave away.
I would very much like to find out more about Eliza Jane. She's been alone on that lonesome hilltop for almost 170 years, with no company but panthers, bears and coyotes, and for some reason I feel if I can find out more about her it would bring her back into the family.
