Matthew Burnette, Staff Writer

The Captain Calvin C. Brewer Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy recently held their 40th anniversary ceremony that included the dedication of a rediscovered local cemetery that includes the final resting place of their namesake.

Chapter 2505 President Connie Janosek explained that the project was one that was years in the making.

“When I joined, I happened to ask them where our name came from, and they said that he’s buried in Hillsboro, and that’s the name that was chosen,” she recalled. “I asked where his grave was and they said that they didn’t know and that they tried to find it, but nobody could find it. I’m just one of those people that if you tell me that, I’m going to find it.”

Finally, Janosek, after a tip from a fellow chapter member, was able to pinpoint a general area of where the cemetery was located.

“My husband and I looked and looked and looked, and finally, somebody told me it was near a gentleman’s house,” she explained. “So, we went out there and we couldn’t find it and we actually went up a dirt road and knocked on a lady’s door, and she said ‘Honey, just turn around. It’s right behind you.’”

Vegetation had overgrown the cemetery that is known to some as the Reynolds Cemetery and to others as the Fetzer-Layne-Craven Cemetery.

Janosek found the property owner, Ryan Sadler, who was open to the idea of having the cemetery located and cleaned up.

“I told him that I thought there was a Confederate soldier buried on his property, and he got all excited, and I asked if I could come back out and really look, and that’s when we went back (in May),” said Janosek. “We searched and searched and were just about ready to leave, and my husband saw a grave back way in a corner, and there was a big tree that had fallen, so I took a picture and zoomed in, and I was like ‘Oh my gosh. I found him.’”

The him in question was Captain Calvin C. Brewer. In addition to his grave, they also discovered the graves of two other Confederate soldiers, one who died during the Civil War and one who died after.

In addition to the soldiers’ graves, there were also 11 other graves that included small crypts where infants and children were buried. The oldest grave at the cemetery dates back to 1849.

Sadler explained to Janosek and her husband that he had been trying to get in contact with different colleges and organizations to come and do the cleanup work at the cemetery.

“He said ‘You’re an answer to my prayers,’ so we went out there and we really tore it apart,” said Janosek.

Cleanup began on May 17, and the group returned in June, July and August. Then, after a suggestion from a fellow member, Janosek got in contact with Coffee County Sheriff Chad Partin who, along with some trustees, brought equipment out to help with the clearing.

“They worked so hard and were so nice,” enthused Janosek. “He brought out a dump truck and filled it up twice and took stuff away. When we went back a couple of weeks later, we finished burning off the rest of it, but this has been such a thing to me.”

The group returned to the cemetery in November and cleaned the head stones as well as doing some bush hogging. They also cleaned, sanded and repainted a flagpole that was made from old light pole that came from the median that used to go down Hwy 41 in Manchester.

Janosek says that the property owner has promised to keep the area maintained. She also explained that her group is working towards making sure that Confederate soldiers are recorded and that lost or forgotten graves are uncovered.

“That’s what the United Daughters of the Confederacy are trying to do is to make sure that soldiers are in a national database so that say if I wanted to go find my ancestor, I could call them and they can look it up and say ‘They’re in Florida at this cemetery and this is where they are buried at’ so they’re not forgotten,” she said.

Her desire to help Confederate soldiers in this way, according to Janosek, stems from being raised by a service member.

“My father was in the military, so I was raised with respect with the flag and everything, and just to give them the honor and to know that Captain Brewer came home to check on his family during the war and was bushwhacked and killed and then left for dead. To me, that’s just so sad,” she explained. “So, when I go there, I talk to them and say, ‘Well at least we found you and cleaned you up and now you have the respect.’”

In addition to giving honor to the soldiers, Janosek says that she hopes their efforts shines a more positive light on the United Daughter of the Confederacy and let people know that they aren’t a “bad” group.

“We’re out to do good things and we want to do good things,” she said. “You can’t rewrite history, and things were done, but there was good and bad on both sides, and I hate that history is being erased.”

While not originally a history buff, Janosek says that she really learned to appreciate it after joining the UDC.

“I joined because, I knew I was a Confederate because I’m from Florida, and my ancestor was actually captured in Chattanooga on Missionary Ridge and spent two and a half years as a Prisoner of War, and then when he was released at the end of the war, he walked home to Florida and ended up becoming a commissioner and all of that and served in politics in Florida,” she explained. “But doing that, I’ve learned all of this and so much history.”