DIRECTIONS: From the intersection of US Highway 90 and Washington Avenue at Ocean Springs, go easterly 4.25 miles to Handshaw Road. Turn right [south] on Handshaw Road and go .87 miles to Government Street [Old Spanish Trail]. Turn right [west] and go .13 miles to Beach View Drive at the entrance to Gulf Park Estates Subdivision. Turn left [south] and go 1.8 miles on Beach View Drive to Pointe-aux-Chenes Drive. Turn right [west] and go .9 miles to a dirt road on the south side of Pointe-aux-Chenes Drive. Turn left [south] and go about one block. The Indian Mound Cemetery is on the left [east] in the yard of a home on private property.

HISTORY: This unique burial ground, also called the Indian Mound Cemetery, is located at Pointe-aux-Chenes in Section 3, T8S-R8W on the old James R. Leavell (1885-1974) estate (now Holt). It contains the remains of local pioneers, Daniel H. Ramsay (1814-1867) and Mahala Holder Ramsay (1814-1885).

An Indian mound was chosen to bury Mr. Ramsay because at the time of his demise, the surrounding low-lying lands were inundated by floodwaters. Daniel and Mahala H. Ramsay were the parents of: Sardin G. Ramsay (1837-1920); Edna A. Ramsay (1840) m. Mr. Benson and George Sumrall; Nancy C. Ramsay (1842) m. J.F. Randall; Olena Ramsay Caldwell (1847); Daniel A. Ramsay (1850); Andrew Jackson Ramsay (1852-1929) m. Sue Cooper (1852-1936); Eunice Ramsay (1854-1888) m. Simeon George (1856-1920); and Susan E. Ramsay (1857) m. Willis W. Holder.(The History of JXCO, Ms., 1989, p. 322)

Daniel H. Ramsay began acquiring land in Section 1, T7S-R8W Jackson County, Mississippi in the late 1850s. From April 1856 to January 1860, he bought 230 acres of land in Section 1, as follows: April 1856-NW/4 of SW/4 [40 acres]; September 1856-NW/4 of SW/4 [40 acres]; July 1857-SE/4 of SW/4 [40 acres]; July 1859-NE/NW of NE/4 [10 acres], NE/NW of NW/4 [10acres], SW/4 of SW/4 [40 acres], and NW/SW of SE/4 [10 acres]; January 1860-SW/4 of NE/4 [40 acres]. In December 1880, Mahala Ramsay, widow of David (sic) H. Ramsay, conveyed 182 acres, more or less, to A.J. Ramsay (1852-1929) for $91.(JXCO, Ms. Land Deed Bk. 55, p. 305)

It is interesting to note that the tombstone of Eunice Ramsay George (1854-1888), the daughter of Daniel H. Ramsay and Mahala Holder and the wife of Simeon George (1850-1920), was reported to be located in the Indian Mound cemetery by cemetery surveyors in July 1968. Today, Mrs. George's tombstone is located in the George family cemetery on East Edgewater Drive about 2 miles northeast of the Daniel H. Ramsay Cemetery on Pointe-aux-Chenes.(Requiem, 1969, p. 82)

REFERENCES:
The History of Jackson County, Mississippi, (Jackson County Genealogical Society: Pascagoula, Mississippi-1989).

Requiem, Jackson County, Mississippi Cemetery Records, Vol. 1, "Indian Mound", (Jackson County Geneaolgical Society: Pascagoula, Mississippi-1969).