Located:  Near the Elijah Reed Cemetery in Reedtown Community between Utica and Carpenter, MS (S30T3NR4W).   First Grave:  1830

Remarks:  This cemetery was recorded by Sylvia Opiela, who played in it as a child growing up in Reedtown.  She said that there were two marble vaults, but that when she came back to the area years later, both slabs were missing from the vaults.  Shortly after she started asking landowners about the stones, the sides and ends of the vaults also disappeared.  The two vaults were located on a hill within sight of the Reed Cemetery.  They were surrounded by numerous graves marked only by rocks, believed to be graves of slaves on the large Steele Plantation.  James Steele and his wife Mary had at least two children, a daughter Frances who married Peter Stubbs (buried at Utica), and a son, James Jr.  Other than Stubbs descendants in the Utica area, there are probably no descendants of the Steeles around Utica and Carpenter. Since Peter Stubbs was married at least three times (two wives are buried in Utica), Frances Steele Stubbs could have outlived her husband and remarried or moved from the area.

Steele, James b. about 1790  d. 1830

Steele, Mary, wf of James   b. ?? d. 1837