Dade County, Georgia, man seeks to preserve former slave’s history

Staff Photo by Ben Benton / Dade County, Ga., resident Rex Blevins on Monday stands behind a stone he installed at Sarah's Chapel Cemetery to mark the grave of former slave Parthenia "Aunt Thenie" Strickland Brogden. Brogden was born in 1831 and died in Dade County in 1934. Staff Photo by Ben Benton / Dade County, Ga., resident Rex Blevins on Monday stands behind a stone he installed at Sarah's Chapel Cemetery to mark the grave of former slave Parthenia "Aunt Thenie" Strickland Brogden. Brogden was born in 1831 and died in Dade County in 1934.

By Ben Benton July 27, 2022 7 min read

WILDWOOD, Ga. – To most, she was known only as “Aunt Thenie.”

Parthenia “Aunt Thenie” Strickland Brogden was born enslaved in Georgia and died a free woman in Georgia’s Dade County almost a century later.

Brogden’s is a story that should be preserved for her family, the community and her place in local history, Rex Blevins said Monday as he walked through Sarah’s Chapel Cemetery under the bows of massive oak trees with limbs draped over graves dating back more than a century.

Brogden is linked to the Blevins family starting with a farm purchase more than 100 years ago, Blevins said.

In 1910, Blevins’ great-grandmother, Paralee Blevins, bought a farm in Dade County where Brogden lived, said Blevins, who has written a couple of books on his and his family’s history in Dade County. He calls his great-grandmother “mamaw.”