Gieger Cemetery
Collins, Covington County, Mississippi 

Submitted by Gerry Gieger on July 26, 2001.

Location: This Cemetery is located on a tributary of the Okatoma Creek in a heavily wooded area on the East Side of US Highway 49, south of Collins, MS. It is about two miles from the courthouse and just past a private Zoo which houses unwanted and discarded exotic animals... The land is presently owned by a Jackson MS descendant of Mr. Sam Shoemake, and is only accessible from the adjacent land of Mr. R. C. Sanford and his wife. It requires crossing The Sanford's pasture, and climbing a five-foot net and barbed-wire fence, and has been sought for by many Gieger descendants, but the path was marked with orange florescent paint on the trees on 31 August 2000.

Once, a wagon road passed within 20 yards of the Cemetery, but that has since disappeared. The Markers are cement slabs covering the entire graves and hand lettered inscription adorn the surface...since they are at ground level, often the falling leaves cover up the slabs and soon they are underground by the process of decaying leaves...Years ago, someone placed a barbed wire enclosure around the Cemetery but only one post remains upright...The area is inhabited by feral Emu's and other wildlife...an Alligator has been seen in the Sanford's pond... 

 Additional graves may be located in the area and it is rumored that a slave Graveyard existed in the same immediate area, however, it has not been located... although Mrs. Sanford maintains some markers did exist, at one time... 

* [Note: Martha DIKES is the mother-in-law of Zachariah GIEGER, elder child of Jessie and Tobitha GIEGER, and believed to be the wife of Benjamin DYKES, who is thought to have died before 1860 and been buried in the old Welborn Cemetery in Jasper County, MS. Family tradition states that Martha's maiden name was GIEGER, however, it has never been validated]

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