Updated March 10, 2005

On Feb. 26, 1843 the Friendship Presbyterian Church was organized at a site along the present Route 293 near the Etowah River. The site was donated by Arnold Milner for a church and cemetery for family and friends.

Some ten years later, the church moved to its present location in Cartersville on the corner of Bartow and West Main streets and became known as the First Presbyterian Church. Friendship Cemetery continued to be used as a burial site for more than 100 years.

The book, Cemeteries of Bartow, Formerly Cass Counties, published by EVHS in 1973, lists a total of 89 graves on the site. However, Carl Etheredge, EVHS cemetery chairman, believes that the actual number of persons buried there was much higher.

According to the book, 3 people were buried in Friendship in the 1840’s, 7 in the 1850’s and 8 in the 1960’s The last 2 burials were in 1960. the book listed 16 names without a date of death.

The most commonly recorded names in the cemetery are Puckett and Jones. Seven people with the last name of Puckett were buried there from 1864 to 1905. Seven Jones’ were interred but the only date recorded was in 1921. Arnold Milner, the donor of the property was buried there on April 24, 1852, three weeks shy of his 66th birthday. Richard Milner, the first pastor of the Presbyterian Church, was buried at Friendship in November, 1855.

The property was neglected for many years and became greatly overgrown. For years, many of the motorists traveling on Route 293 between Cartersville and Emerson were unaware that the brush and shrubbery covered a cemetery.

In 2003, EVHS adopted Friendship as a project and began the task of clearing the site. With the help of a brush fire and with assistance of men from the Presbyterian Church, a great deal of progress was made. When Bartow County work deals began work at the site real progress was made in removing dead trees and other debris.

EVHS volunteers are still cleaning up the the site and are about to enter the next phase of preparing trails, putting up a sign and erecting a fence.