Not long after the Civil War, a small congregation took root near Wadley, Georgia, at a place where Lindsey Coleman had built a school for his children and neighbors. What began under a brush arbor in the late 1860s soon grew into Coleman’s Chapel, officially organized in 1870 by Dr. L.B. Boschell. A year later, seven and a half acres were deeded for the church, and with timber cut and milled locally, a permanent sanctuary rose in 1871.

The cemetery tells as much of the story as the church itself. Many Civil War veterans rest here, including Mills Bennett Watkins, who not only helped build the church but once served as a Confederate soldier. Stories from that era still linger, such as Union troops marching past Coleman’s farm on their way to Savannah, or the raid on the home of Lt. William J. Folks, whose family hid in the woods as their livestock was taken.

The names carved in the stones reflect the tangled legacy of war and survival. Rachael Rebecca Coleman Kirkland Watkins lost her first husband in the conflict, then remarried Mills Watkins, binding together two families deeply marked by the era.

Not all the stories tied to the church are rooted in the 19th century. The cemetery is also linked to one of Georgia’s most notorious figures, Anjette Lyles, convicted in the 1950s of poisoning four family members. Her tragic tale, though grim, is a reminder of the layers of history found in places like this. Coleman’s Chapel still stands as a survivor of Georgia’s past, a place where faith, hardship, and local lore converge. To walk here is to uncover stories that stretch from the devastation of the Civil War to the mysteries of the modern age.