Local Girl Scout spearheads effort to clean up Forsyth County cemetery

FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. — Mount Moriah Cemetery dates back to 1880 and over the years has suffered from neglect and a lack of upkeep. The cemetery sits in a wooded area in Coal Mountain, just north of Cumming in Forsyth County.

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16-year old Girl Scout Abby Waits found the cemetery one day last summer while walking through the area. She told Channel 2′s Berndt Petersen she had no idea it was there and that historical locations like Mt. Moriah deserve to be kept up.

She said after finding the site that the brush was so thick, you’d never know the graveyard was there. Waits was determined to make it right and get the cemetery cleaned up.

“The place was in really bad condition when we first found it. We had to cut the briars back because we couldn’t make it in,” Waits said.

“She took it on. She interviewed people. She tracked people down and scheduled everything. It was pretty impressive for a 16-year-old,” Abby’s mom Heather said.

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Abby soon organized a crew to make a path and clear the land surrounding the graveyard. This past week, she returned to begin cleaning the headstones, many of which were broken. Over the years, it appears the cemetery had been vandalized multiple times.

“People purposely destroyed these memories. It makes me sad that someone would do that. I feel it’s my moral responsibility to clean it up,” Abby said.

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She told Petersen once the weather gets nicer, she has plans to lead another effort to clean the remaining headstones and make one little corner of Forsyth County history presentable for anyone wanting to see it.

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