This is the Mobley Cemetery, burial place of Captain Byrd Mobley (16 October 1850-27 November 1925) and his family. Because the gravesite has always been marked with a Confederate flag, I assumed that Captain Mobley had been involved in the Civil War. But upon further study I realized this was very unlikely to be the case. He would have been just fourteen years old at the end of the war. I have been unable to locate him in any regimental histories.
This area along the Ocmulgee River, at the Ben Hill County Public Boat Landing, is known as Mobley Bluff. Carlton E. Morrison’s invaluable history, Running the River: Poleboats, Steamboats & Timber Rafts On the Altamaha, Ocmulgee, Oconee & Ohoopee, confirms that Captain Mobley had indeed piloted a passenger steamboat known as The Cumberland for W. A. Willcox. The Cumberland made regular runs between Hawkinsville and Darien in the 1880s and 1890s. For those interested in the history of river life in South Georgia during the latter half of the 19th century, Carlton Morrison’s Running the River is a treasure trove.
