Directions: From Sugar Valley Baptist Church in Gordon County, proceed

north about 2 miles to junction with highway 136. Continue north on GA

136 for about 4 more miles and into Walker County. Look for paved

driveway on the right and sign for Mountain Top Boys Home (mailing

address: 65 Mountain Top Way, Sugar Valley, GA 30746). Turn into this

drive, bear to the right and continue on the dirt road for about 0.4

miles to where there is a bend in the road at the foot of the hill. The

cemetery is on the mountain to the left (East). About 200 yards before

reaching the house at end of road, there usually is some orange

flagging on a tree or bush on the left side of the road where to enter

the woods from the road. From this flagging, the cemetery is about 200

yards up the ridge. Permission should be obtained from the Mountain Top

facility before entering the property. Mr. Curtis Adair is the current

Director of the facility (Phone: 706-397-8223).



William L. Strain (1818-1896) of Lincoln County, NC brought his family

to Snake Creek Gap in Walker County, GA just prior to 1850 and

established a pioneer home site near the creek. They farmed the area

and had a grist mill nearby. The family cemetery was established on the

hill behind the home site when their oldest son, Merrit Malachi Strain

(1843-1859), died in 1859. The family lived there through the War

Between the States in spite of the destruction wrought by the Union

Army passing through the Gap. William's wife, Elizabeth Bandy Strain

(1823-1865), died just before the end of the war, and she was the

second burial in the cemetery. Soon after, William remarried and built

a new home at the southern end of the Gap, and he moved there. The

cabin at the pioneer home site continued to be occupied well into the

1900's, but now the cabin has been gone for more than 80 years and no

trace of it remains. William L. Strain's mother was brought to Georgia

from South Carolina after his father (Andrew Strain, Jr.) died in 1871.

It is believed she and some other relatives lived in the pioneer cabin

for a while, as evidenced by surviving receipts dated in the 1870's for

goods at the Villanow Country Store in Walker County. The mother, Nancy

Kidd Strain (1799-1887), died in Dalton, GA and was buried in this

cemetery in December, 1887. A grandson of William, Henry Hudson Strain

(1892-1893), was buried here in 1893. There are at least 4 additional

graves, that are unknown, and are those of infants or small children.

These graves are now marked with small uninscribed pieces of granite.

William, and many additional family members are buried at the Sugar

Valley Baptist Church Cemetery, and others at the Hill City Baptist

Church Cemetery, both in Gordon County, GA.



The Strain Family Cemetery is regularly maintained by the Strain Family

Association which meets each year on the 3rd Sunday in July at the

Sugar Valley Baptist Church, Sugar Valley, GA. In 1978 the first

inscribed markers were installed. In the years since, 3 additional

monuments (one a memorial stone for Andrew Strain, Jr.) have been

installed and other improvements made. These improvements included a

fence around the cemetery, and an entrance gate with sign. For

additional information regarding this cemetery, one may contact the

Historian for the Strain Family Association, Dr. James C. Parker, at

telephone 706-265-7068.