Estelle Cemetery in LaFayette, Georgia

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Get directions LaFayette, Georgia, USA

Coordinates: 34.75158, -85.34812
Cemetery ID:

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About these numbers These percentages indicate the number of Find a Grave memorials that have a grave photo or GPS coordinates. We don't know the total number of burials in a cemetery, so we cannot calculate a percentage of those with memorials, photos or GPS coordinates.

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To get there, from Highway 27 in Lafayette, turn west onto South Main st. Follow it for approx. 3/4 of a mile and turn left onto West Main st. This is also considered State Route 109 North. Travel approx. 11 minutes or 7.3 miles along 109 and Estelle Cemetery Rd. will be on your right. The Estelle cemetery is located on Estelle Cemetery Rd. The road itself is little more than a gravel drive that winds its way up the hillside. About an eighth of a mile up the road, you will enter the cemetery which then cul-de-sacs around its perimeter.

The cemetery was founded in 1881 by prominent entrepreneur Jesse Mercer Shaw after the death of his wife. The town of Estelle, originally part of an area called "Shaw", and the cemetery itself was named for his daughter Estelle Shaw. This area may have been part of his lands obtained after moving here from Oglethorpe county Georgia. The cemetery once shared the grounds with the Estelle School. The small three-room school was part of the county's school system and served to educate the children of the Estell community. It had a total enrollment of around 150 students. Many of the children belonged to the those working at the nearby Estell Iron Ore Mines. The Estelle Iron Mining Company closed in 1924 and by the 1940s, Estelle was a ghost town with many of its resident moving to nearby Kensington & LaFayette. The school continued operating but burned to the ground some time between 1940-1945 and was never rebuilt. There are no remnants of Estelle Georgia left. The only lasting artifacts are the stone structures once used for mining. As of 2020, the Estelle Cemetery still conducts interments.