Liberty Church
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Liberty Cemetery

Liberty Church, also, Liberty Cemetery. . , Liberty Church. At this location, just west of present-day downtown Rogersville, was the area's first place set aside for Christian worship, circa 1818. Ideally situated alongside the major east-west thoroughfare, this was the closest hill to the community's major intersection. A brush arbor was constructed of poles anchored into the ground. Limbs and leaves were used for covering. It was said that Richard J. Andrews held the first church services here. A small log structure, plastered together with mud, was later built to replace the brush arbor. In 183l, the church was constituted into the association founded by Alabama very first Baptist congregation. Flint River Primitive Baptist in Madison County. In 1836, the church with several others to form the North Liberty Missionary Baptist Association, proclaiming that every citizen has the right to worship God as they believe the Bible teaches. Liberty was the only church in Rodgersville (original spelling) before 184l, when property alongside Snake Road was deeded to the trustees of the United Baptist Church of Jesus Christ. A wooden structure was built at that location shortly thereafter. In 1850, there were 112 members at Liberty Church, led by Rev. Jesse Seale. He ministered here and to the congregation at Round Island Church in Limestone County. Rev. Seale was highly regarded in every community he served. Biracial in membership, black members of the Liberty Association during that time were mostly slaves owned by white congregants. Services ceased prior to the Civil War. In 1865, this was recorded: “The Rodgersville church had their building burned down and had no pastor.” Liberty Church was never rebuilt. Missionary Baptist tent revivals were held near the original church site throughout the early 1900s., Liberty Cemetery. The first public cemetery was established in Rodgersville by pioneer families who laid their loved ones to rest around the church. At least 200 people are believed to be buried in this cemetery. These individuals, some of whom were first-generation U.S. citizens, helped shape a settlement being formed into a viable community. Town namesake Andrew Rodgers, who purchased adjoining property on March 3, 1818, died around 1826 and is believed to be buried in one of the cemetery’s numerous unmarked graves. Rodgers daughter Margaret and her husband, Robert Shane, have monuments within the limestone walled-in section. Shane served 30 years as postmaster. The earliest internment with an inscribed marker is that of two-year-old William Lansford, who died on September 17, 1837, and who shares a plot with two siblings. Veterans acknowledged in the cemetery are: Samuel Flanagan (War of 18 12): James B. Cox, John A. Haraway, Miles Harvell , Joseph T. Ingram, William B. Nugent, Dr. Jesse A. Pate, Bayless B. Shane, John F. Trousdale, and William J. Weaver (Civil War CSA): James Fulks, Joseph Fuqua, Bayless Haraway, and John Howard (world war one). The eastern lower portion of the cemetery is the African-American section. In 1891, the death and burial here of a traveling Cuban acrobat was memorialized in a newspaper article “The Lonely Grave of a Dead Showman.” On Thanksgiving Day 2012, the cemetery was vandalized, resulting in the removal of the capstone from the limestone wall. In 2017, a resolution was adopted giving the town of Rogersville ownership and maintenance responsibilities for Liberty Cemetery. A separate resolution approved by the Town Council declared Eletha Howard as the only additional person to be buried at Liberty Cemetery.