For the past couple of months, I have been coordinating a project in which I rallied members of the Bird Family to make donations towards the purchase of new tombstones for my great-great-great-grandfather, George Marshall Bird, and his wife, Martha S. Clark Bird. This is something that I have desired to do for quite a long time, as their graves at the Campground Cemetery are currently marked with a simple hand-hewn limestone rock, on top of which the name "BIRD" was chiseled by my great-great-great-uncle, Dick McPeters. The new tombstones will not only mark the graves of our grandparents, but will also pay homage to the fact that it was this ancestor who first brought the Bird Family into the Big Cove Community in 1904. As a project within a project, we also purchased a tombstone for my great-great-grandfather, John William Bird, who was shot and killed in a well dispute near Monrovia in 1902. He was buried in the Mount Zion Baptist Church Cemetery; however, his grave has been unmarked all of these years. The tombstones have been purchased; and I actually went by Klassics Memorials in Scottsboro on Friday evening to get a sneak-peak of them. They look GREAT! I can't wait for everyone to see them! We will have a small dedication ceremony at the Campground Cemetery at which time we will "unveil" the new headstone, memorialize our ancestors, and visit with kin! Everyone (Bird or otherwise) is invited to this event, which will be held at 2:00 p.m. on September 21, 2013. For more information, give me a call or send me an email! -BYRD
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