I’ve mentioned on more than one occasion that I got both of my degrees at the University of Georgia in Athens (journalism and English literature). When people hear this, they usually assume that I’ve been to Oconee Hill Cemetery.

Truth be told, until May 2018, I’d never been! That’s a little embarrassing to admit but back in the late 1980s to early 90s, cemeteries were the last thing on my mind. I was a full-time student at UGA and an intern at the Athens Daily News. But it was definitely near where I spent a great deal of my time in those days.

I moved into Payne Hall on the UGA campus my junior year in the fall of 1988. Built in 1940, there’s nothing distinguished about the building except that famed NFL Vikings football player Fran Tarkenton lived there when he played for the Georgia Bulldogs during the late 1950s. I can remember waking up on Saturday mornings to the sound of eager fans passing by my window on their way to Sanford Stadium.

Sanford Stadium actually has a cemetery of its own. Georgia’s Uga mascots began coming onto the field in 1956. Sanford Stadium is the final resting place of each English Bulldog that’s served as the team’s mascot. The mausoleum includes an epitaph of their tenure. Moved twice since 1981, the mausoleum’s current location is near Gate 9.

When Mother’s Day rolled around last year, I asked if we could go to Athens and visit my old haunts. Getting inside Oconee Hill Cemetery was a “must do” on my list.

According to the cemetery web site, the first gravesites in Athens were located on unused portions of the college campus. That included the Jackson Street Cemetery, whose history you can read more about here. Because the burial ground had spread close to the homes of the president and the university’s professors, trustees urged the mayor and wardens of Athens to create a public cemetery for the community.

In 1855, 17 acres of land beside the Oconee River were purchased for $1,000 and Oconee Hill Cemetery was opened. Several graves at the cemetery predate the purchase. While most Southern cemeteries were segregated, Oconee Hill was noted for its policy of acceptance of all races, even during the 1800s.

Unfortunately, the socio-economic status of many African-Americans in those years means some graves are poorly marked. In addition, because early cemetery records were lost due to fire, it’s been hard to identify many African-American graves.

Football and Final Resting Places

Only a parking lot exists between Payne Hall and Sanford Stadium. Across the street from it is Oconee Hill Cemetery. To give you an idea of just how close they are, I took this picture. On autumn Saturdays, Athens comes alive with the roar of avid Bulldog fans but Oconee Hill’s residents remain silent year after year.

The first monument I photographed turned out to be a prominent figure in Georgia history and politics.

A native of Jefferson County, Howell Cobb was born in 1815. He was a University of Georgia graduate who apprenticed to become a lawyer. He married heiress Mary Ann Lamar in 1835 and they had 12 children, six of whom survived to adulthood. Thomas Willis Cobb, a member of the U.S.Congress and namesake of Georgia’s Cobb County, was a cousin.

As Cobb’s fortunes rose, so did his political ambitions. A Jacksonian Democrat, he was dedicated to a policy of moderation. He would eventually fill the roles of Congressman, Speaker of the House, Governor of Georgia from 1851-1853, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury under President James Buchanan and Civil War Confederate major general.

Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1860 shattered Cobb’s faith in compromise. He urged Georgia to secede from the Union and united with his brother Thomas Cobb and Governor Joseph E. Brown to spearhead the state’s secession movement.

A Confederate Major General

Cobb served as president of the Provisional Confederate Congress and entered the Confederate Army as a colonel in the 16th Georgia Infantry after it adjourned. During the Antietam campaign, his brigade was destroyed while fighting at Crampton’s Gap.

In October 1862, he assumed command of the district of middle Florida. Promoted to major general, he took command of Georgia state troops in September 1863. He surrendered to Union forces in Macon on April 20, 1865. Cobb died of a heart attack while vacationing in New York on October 9, 1868.

The next family plot I glimpsed nearby was for the Baxters. That name rang a bell immediately. While Baxter Street (also called Baxter Hill) is not long, it is a main thoroughfare on the UGA campus that all students spend time traveling. It’s lined with dorms, restaurants, college bookstores, and bars.

Sadly, much of the iron fencing around the Baxter plot has been piled up to the side and left to rust. The gate that says “1870” is still there but not much of the fence is still around the plot.

The tall, draped obelisk with a draped urn on top is for Thomas Washington Baxter and his wife, Mary Wiley Baxter.

The son of Revolutionary War veteran, Thomas Baxter born in Greene County, Ga. in 1789, Thomas spent his early years in nearby Baldwin and Hancock Counties. Baxter gained a reputation for heroism during the Seminole Indian Wars. He married Mary Wiley in 1815 and they had 11 children together. Six of their sons would serve in the Confederacy during the Civil War.

When Cotton Was King

The Baxters moved to Athens around 1831, where Thomas accepted the presidency of the Athens Manufacturing Company. It became a key part of the thriving Athens textile industry. Baxter was also active in investing his growing fortunes and had his hand in banking enterprises as well.

Thomas died at the age of 54 on Aug. 18, 1844 of tuberculosis. That’s several years before Oconee Hill Cemetery officially opened. So I’m of the opinion he may have been initially buried elsewhere and moved later. Wife Mary died in 1869 at the age of 70.

To the right of Thomas and Mary’s obelisk is another for Major William Edgeworth Bird, their son-in-law. He married their daughter Sarah (“Sallie”) in 1848. Major Bird died in 1867 at their Hancock County, Ga. home, Granite Farms, in 1867. He was wounded at the Second Battle of Manassas in Virginia during the Civil War.

Beside Major Bird’s grave is that of his daughter and Thomas’ granddaughter, Mary Pamela Bird. She was their third and youngest child, born in 1853.

Major Bird’s wife and Mary Pamela’s mother, Sallie Baxter, is not buried in the Baxter plot. Sometime in the 1890s, she moved to Baltimore, Md. to live with her eldest daughter, Saida Baxter Smith, and her family. Sarah died in 1910 and is buried next to her son, Wilson Bird, in Baltimore’s Green Mount Cemetery.

Across the way is the Childs family plot, which is dominated by a large monument featuring a woman holding a rope-encircled anchor.

Born on Dec. 9, 1820 in Springfield, Mass., Asaph King Childs learned the silversmith craft from his older brother, Otis. Asaph and Otis moved to Milledgeville, Ga. and they worked together from 1835 to 1846. After moving to Athens, they opened the Athens Hardware Company. Asaph also helped found the National Bank of Athens. Otis eventually returned to Massachusetts sometime around 1861.

In 1856, Childs married Susan Ingle. Together, they had three children, Frances (1857), Walter (1860), and Susie (1866). The Childs family was in Washington, D.C. in June 1872 when Susie died.

“Fell Asleep”

Susie’s marker fascinates me. It looks like an indentation was left for her death date but that ended up being carved below it. Instead the words “fell asleep” are inscribed there.

While those words may seem strange to see on a grave marker now, they were not unusual at the time. “Asleep in Jesus” is another such phrase. I consider them to be predecessors for the more modern “rest in peace.” Many believed that death was merely a momentary “sleep” from which the dead would rise when Christ returned. I think it was also a way, especially for those mourning the death of a little one, to believe that they were just sleeping and not gone forever.

Susan Childs died after a sudden illness in 1881 at the age of 49 and was buried next to Susie. Asaph died in 1901 at the age of 81 after a long illness.

I’ve just scratched the service at Oconee Hill Cemetery. There’s more to come in Part II.

 

Do you remember the old TV show “Gilligan’s Island”? During the show’s first season, the  theme song, near the end, included a lyric that goes, “And the rest!” That was the Professor and Mary Ann. As a bit of trivia, Bob Denver (who played Gilligan) demanded his costars be included in the song so it was changed in future seasons.

That early lyric fits the mood of today’s post as I wrap up my series on Macon, Ga.’s Rose Hill Cemetery. Here is “the rest” that deserves to be mentioned and talked about.

It should come as no surprise that there are a lot of Confederate soldiers buried at Rose Hill Cemetery. Some died in battle, others in hospitals of disease and the rest who survived the war and died later in life. According to a plaque, Macon became a key location for Confederate hospitals during the Civil War. Only Richmond, Va. is thought have had a greater number of wounded.

Visiting Soldiers’ Square

The first Confederate dead interred at Rose Hill were four of seven Macon soldiers who were killed in battle in Pensacola, Fla. in 1861. They are in the first row of what is known as Soldiers’ Square at Rose Hill. According to one witness, a thousand people attended the funerals.

After the war, Ladies Memorial Association president Jane Lumsden Hardeman initiated an effort to move those Confederate dead buried at various hospitals around the area to Rose Hill. She erected wooden headboards with the name, company, regiment and date of death for each soldier. She also helped organize the first Confederate Memorial Day at Rose Hill on April 26, 1866.

An estimated 884 soldiers are buried in Soldiers’ Square. Another 882 known Confederate soldiers are buried in private lots throughout Rose Hill. That brings the grand total to 1,746 known Confederate soldiers buried at Rose Hill. There are likely a number of unmarked graves but it’s uncertain how many.

The Book of Life

Sometimes I like something just because it’s different than the norm. The grave marker for Edwin Summers Davis and his wife, Camille Johnson Davis, fits the bill.

Born around 1877, Edwin was the son of Confederate veteran Capt. William A. Davis, who was a prominent banker in Macon and a member of just about every fraternal organization from the Masons to the Odd Fellows to the Elks.

Edwin got his degree at Macon’s Mercer University and married Camille Johnson in 1898. Most of his career was in selling insurance. The couple had three children.

Camille died first in 1931 of a cerebral hemorrhage. Edwin lived another 29 years before dying in 1960. Their “open book” marker is in the Davis family plot. It’s a clever way to present all the pertinent information.

When I was looking into the history of Rose Hill’s Hebrew Burial Ground, I learned that the cemetery actually has a total of seven different Jewish areas. Not all are labeled. The Hebrew Burial Ground, established in 1844, was the first Jewish cemetery established in Macon.

The first burial there was Leopold Bettman who died in August of that year in Perry, Ga. The second burial was his brother, David Bettman, who died in Hawkinsville, Ga. in October of the same year. In 1859, when Congregation Beth Israel was established, it took over the cemetery.

One of the markers I photographed there was for Lena Sack Roobin (1875-1896).

“She is Now Sweetly Sleeping”

Lena was born in 1875 in Bialystok, Poland, although it was part of Russia at that time. She emigrated to American and married Abraham Roobin. They settled in Cordele, Ga., and had one child together before Lena died of typhoid fever in September 1896. There’s some question as to the exact day.

This was her obituary from the Sept. 19, 1896 edition of the Macon Telegraph. Although it says she was buried in the Edward Wolff cemetery, she was buried in the Hebrew Burial Ground at Rose Hill. It also says she died on Thursday, Sept. 17 but her marker says Sept. 19, 1896.

By 1879, a new Jewish cemetery had opened within Rose Hill called the William Wolff Cemetery. According to the Jewish Federation of Macon and Middle Georgia’s web site, the Hebrew Burial Ground was not generally used after that, though there are some graves there that date into the early 1900s.

William Wolff Cemetery Opens

Larger than the original Hebrew Burial Ground, William Wolff Cemetery was named after the benefactor who donated the land for it. A slice of the predominately black Oak Ridge Cemetery next door was sold to him in 1879 to use as a burial ground for Temple Beth Israel Synagogue. Wolff was a prominent dry goods merchant in Macon for many years. He and his brother, Edward, were German immigrants who came to Macon in the 1860s. Both became very successful businessmen over the years.

There’s a story behind the monument to the wife of William Wolff, Bertha. She was born about 1852 to 1854 in Europe, and died Sept. 15, 1904. It only has her name on it with no dates. When I saw it, I knew at once who might have carved it but didn’t think to search it for a possible signature. Turns out it was on the back.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, this monument might look familiar to you as well. When I looked up her name on Stephanie Lincecum’s Rose Hill site, she confirmed that it was indeed done by sculptor John Walz. His best known work is probably the much loved (and photographed) monument of Gracie Watson in Savannah, Ga.’s Bonaventure Cemetery.

“The Heart’s Keen Anguish”

The woman holding calla lilies theme is one he favored a great deal. They usually represent marriage and fidelity. You can see similar figures Walz carved in the Davis plot at Laurel Grove South Cemetery in Savannah, the McMillan plot at Bonaventure Cemetery, and the Wolff’s in Macon. Only the heads are different, although the base of the Davis monument is markedly unique from the others.

Walz made an effort to replicate face of the deceased on the face of the monument’s statue based on photographs he was given.

The epitaph reads:

“The heart’s keen anguish only those can tell
Who have bid the dearest and the loved farewell.”

William died almost six years after Bertha on March 5, 1910 and was buried in the Wolff plot with her. His brother, Edward (a cotton broker and “linter”), died Aug. 25 of the same year after suffering a heart attack. He is interred in one of the few mausoleums in the Wolff Cemetery with his wife, Ricka, who died in 1936.

The Hebrew Aid Society burial ground was started in 1899 by newly arriving Eastern Europeans. Congregation Sherah Israel, who opened their adjacent section in 1923, gradually took it over by removing the wall separating the two areas, dividing the lots among the owning families in 1929.

Small areas for Congregation B’nai Israel (1870), the Workman’s Circle (1920) and the new section of Sherah Israel that opened in 1987 are also within Rose Hill Cemetery.

Origins of Oak Ridge Cemetery

Earlier I mentioned Oak Ridge Cemetery. When Simri Rose designed Rose Hill Cemetery in the 1840s, he set aside 10 acres for slave owners to purchase and bury enslaved people and to bury city-owned enslaved people. On Sept. 12, 1851, the Macon City Council officially designated that land as Oak Ridge Cemetery.

Of the 961 burials recorded between 1845 and 1865, only two names were recorded. “A free man of color named Hannibal Roe” was buried in 1846 and “Essex” because he was allegedly disinterred by local medical students in 1858. At least 1,000 formerly enslaved people are thought to be buried in unmarked graves at Oak Ridge. After the Civil War, many poor whites were also buried there.

One of the few markers I saw in the Oak Ridge area was for Julia Ann Brooks, the wife of John W. Brooks. She was born around 1824, Julia was a native of Richmond, Va. Julia and John are both listed as “mulatto” (an antiquated term thankfully no longer in use) or of mixed race. The 1880 U.S. Census lists John as being a retail grocer and their household included John’s sister, Mary Ann Brooks. It is interesting to note that Julia was at least 10 years older than her husband.

Julia Ann died on May 8, 1883. She was probably around 60 years old. Her marker says she was a “member of the A.M.E. Church and a consistent Christian.” A finger pointing down from the clouds (often thought to represent God reaching down for the soul) clasps a few blooming flowers.

At the end of the afternoon, I was hot, sweaty but very happy. It’s often how I feel after I’ve spent a wonderful day visiting a historic cemetery like Rose Hill with such a variety of marker styles. It also left me wishing I could spend more time wandering the rows and discovering more of the stories.

Perhaps that’s what is so compelling about visiting cemeteries, knowing you may someday return and learn more about “the rest” that’s quietly waiting to be discovered.

Yes, we’re still at Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon, Ga. I could write a book about this place and yes, some people already have. So let’s dive back in and visit some more graves.

“A Brave Little Fireman”

I often find myself drawn to the grave markers of the children and young people who left the Earth too soon. Rose Hill has quite a few. One that hit me square in the heart is this one for John B. Ross Juhan. I challenge anyone who sees it not to get choked up.

Like many little boys, John wanted to be a fireman. His fascination made him a frequent visitor to the Defiance Fire Company No. 5 in Macon, and they made him their unofficial mascot. I could find little about them, but I believe they were established around 1868.

Sadly, little John’s dream was not meant to be. He died on July 26, 1875 at the age of eight. In tribute to his love of firemen, this monument was made by stone carver John Artope (whom I talked about last week). The detail in the fireman’s uniform is unlike anything I’ve ever seen.

I’m sure there wasn’t a dry eye at this little boy’s funeral.

Not far from John’s marker is an equally eye-catching monument for a little one. When you catch sight of the intricate marker for 10-year-old Anna Gertrude Powers, you will be drawn to it instantly.

“Angels Her Companions”

The daughter of Virgil and Anna Jenkins Powers, Anna Gertrude was born in 1848 in Washington County, Ga. At the time of her death, she was one of six Powers children. Her father was a railroad superintendent. According to an article in the April 12, 1859 edition of the Macon Telegraph, Anna Gertrude died of scarlet fever as many children did in those days.

Part of her obituary reads:

Possessed of a bright and sparkling intellect — quick and tender sensibilities — an affectionate disposition and winning manners, Anna won her way irresistibly to the hearts of all who knew her. — She was the pride of a fond father’s heart, the cherished object of a mother’s love — her teacher’s boast, and the dearest companion of her schoolmates. Now God is her Father and Teacher — angels her companions — and heaven resounds with her hallelujahs of joy.

The carving of Anna Gertrude born aloft by two angels is of so intricate, it was hard for me not to touch it. One feature that’s not easy to see is the little necklace with a cross encircling the child’s neck.

The history behind the Heartwell/Tarver plot is a bit complicated but thanks to Stephanie Lincecum at Southern Graves, I untangled it.

“In Christ She Sleeps”

Let’s start with this monument to Cinderella Crocker Solomon Tarver Heartwell. She was born on August 22, 1832 to William Solomon and Frances Crocker Solmon. At the age of 22 in 1853, she married Paul Tarver, son of General Hartwell Hill Tarver and Ann Wimberly Tarver. General Tarver was thought to be one of the largest slaveholders in Georgia at the time.

“She Was Indeed a Precious Bud”

In 1855, Cinderella and Paul had a daughter named Dollie, and another daughter, Rebecca, was born in 1857. Son Paul Henry Tarver was born on Nov. 23, 1858. On May 15, 1858, Rebecca died. Then on June 19, Cinderella’s husband, Paul Tarver, died. Both he and Rebecca were buried at Rose Hill Cemetery. Rebecca’s death is recorded in the June 8, 1858 edition of the Macon Telegraph:

Our heart bleeds in tender sympathy with the parents of the bright little being whose death we chronicle. She was indeed a precious bud, whose leaves had not yet opened to the day.

Apparently Paul knew his end was near and had his will drawn up accordingly. Without his knowledge, with her brother Henry’s help, Cinderella purchased Cypress Pond plantation next door to their 5,000 acre estate. After Paul’s death, she and Henry sold off her home and she moved into Cypress Pond with daughter Dolly.

Tragedy struck again on July 24, 1859, when son Paul died. He was buried in the Tarver plot with his sister and father.

After Paul’s passing, Cinderella married Dr. Charles P. “C.P.” Heartwell of Virginia in 1861. His first wife, Martha, had died in 1850. In 1863, Dr. Heartwell purchased the Cypress Pond under his name (from Henry Tarver as Paul’s executor) at auction. In 1864, he and Cinderella welcomed the birth of their son, Charles P. Heartwell, Jr.

For reasons unknown, Cinderella died on April 4, 1866 at the age of 33. Having endured the death of a husband and two of her children, along with surviving the Civil War, she had faced more tragedy that many young women her age.

The angel figure on Cinderella’s monument stands beside an open book, which may symbolize the Bible or another religious text, or the Book of Life, which refers to a biblical passage in Revelation proclaiming that only the dead whose names are contained within will receive entrance into heaven. The book is perched on top of a tree, indicating a life cut short.

The monument’s inscription reads:

Thou is gone, but we will not deplore thee,
Whose God was thy ransom, thy guardian and guide
He gave thee, He took thee and He will restore thee,
And death has no sting, for the Saviour has died.

Dr. Heartwell remained at Cypress Pond with Charles Jr. until he remarried to Mary Wimberly in 1872. He died on Feb. 9, 1890 in Albany, Ga., but his burial site is not listed on Find a Grave. I don’t know what happened to Cinderella’s daughter, Dollie, but a Georgia State Supreme Court case in 1870 involved some issues regarding her inheritance between Dr. Heartwell and her uncle, Henry Tarver. Charles P. Heartwell, Jr. lived a long life and I believe there is a C.P. Heartwell IV.

A Confederate Naval Hero

This double grave for two children has a hearbreaking story behind it.

The parents of these little ones were Confederate Naval hero John McIntosh “Luff” Kell and his wife, Julia Blanche Munroe Kell. Before marrying Blanche, Kell had already served in the Mexican War and was a member of the expedition of Commodore Matthew Perry to Japan in 1853, and Master of the flagship USS Mississippi on the cruise home.

Kell married Blanche in Macon on Oct. 15, 1856. Their first child, Nathan Munroe “Boysie” Kell was born on Dec. 6, 1857. Another son, Johnny, followed in 1859. Daughter Blanche “Dot” Kell was born on Dec. 9, 1860.

As a Navy man, Kell was often at sea, away from his family. By 1861, he had resigned from the Navy and joined the Confederate forces. He commanded the Georgia state gunboat CSS Savannah but received a Confederate States Navy commission as First Lieutenant the following month and was sent to New Orleans. He then served as executive officer of the CSS Sumter during the ship’s commerce raiding voyage from 1861 to 1862.

Far From Home

In Blanche’s journal, she wrote of her worries about her husband’s departure in May 1861:

“When my bright boy awoke, he asked for his father and I told him he had gone far away, but that he kissed him many times for “Goodbye” the night before. He then said, “My poor Papa, I’ll never see him again.”

Another three years and four months would pass before Kell saw Blanche again. Daughter Dot died at the age of two on Sept. 24, 1863. Firstborn Boysie died a few days later on Sept. 28, 1863 at the age of six. Only son Johnny was left alive. I don’t know the causes of their deaths.

First Lieutenant Kell was on CSS Alabama throughout her career and was present when she was sunk by USS Kearsarge in June 1864. He was rescued by the British yacht Dearhound and taken to England. When he finally got back to his family in August, it was a tragic homecoming.

Promoted to the rank of Commander, Kell commanded the ironclad CSS Richmond in the James River Squadron in 1865. After the end of the war, Kell returned home to Blanche and became a farmer. They had several more children, most living to adulthood.

In later years, the family settled in Spalding County, Ga., and Kell served as Adjutant General of Georgia. He died in 1900 at age 76 and Blanche passed away in 1917. They are both buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Griffin, Ga.

I have some loose ends to wrap up next week in Part IV, so I hope you’ll come back.

Last week, I shared the story of Southern Rock band the Allman Brothers’ connection with Macon, Ga.’s Rose Hill Cemetery. This week, we’ll go back a little further in history to explore the lives of some more of its residents.

Some of the information in today’s post is from work done before I ever visited Rose Hill. Stephanie Lincecum has been exploring and researching Southern cemeteries for 15 years. She has a few different blogs going, along with her main page Southern Graves. Her information has proven invaluable in my quest to get the stories behind the stones at Rose Hill. Thank you, Stephanie!

One thing I forgot to include last week was the first recorded interment at Rose Hill, which happened after the death of Caroline Danielly Wilson on Feb. 28, 1840. She was the wife of Col. David Wilson. The lot was owned by her brother-in-law, Alexander McGregor. Col. Wilson is not buried with her. I did find out he was one of Macon’s first aldermen, elected in 1833.

Caroline’s sister, Elizabeth, was McGregor’s first wife. He was a carpenter who died in 1856 of “bilious colic” at the age of 60.

One of the first grave markers I saw after we’d driven through the front gates and parked was for a dog. That’s something you don’t see every day in an older “human” cemetery. But clearly this canine was special and it soon became clear that he was.

The brown terrier that became known as “Lieutenant Bobby” belonged to Capt. David Clinton (D.C.) Harris, Jr. Born in Macon in 1897, Harris served overseas during World War I. Shortly afterr, he was attached to Company C of the 121st Infantry Division of the National Guard stationed at Fort Benning, Ga. They were known as Floyd’s Rifles, a nickname from their Civil War days.

Capt. Harris took Bobby with him everywhere and he soon became a favorite with the soldiers. Bobby received his commission as lieutenant in 1928 when papers were submitted stating that the dog had given years of faithful service. Apparently, President Calvin Coolidge signed the request and the terrier became the first dog to be commissioned in the U.S. military.

Death of a Loyal Friend

On Jan. 28, 1936, Capt. Harris brought Lieutenant Bobby with him when he went to visit friends at Macon’s Dempsey Hotel. Somehow, Lieutenant Bobby got away from him and the dog plunged down an elevator shaft to his death. Capt. Harris was devastated, as were all the men of Company C. Lieutenant Bobby was thought to be 12 years old at the time.

Lieutenant Bobby was buried in the Harris family plot at Rose Hill with full military honors on Feb. 9, 1936.

After Capt. Harris died on July 6, 1943 at the age of 46, he was buried beside Lieutenant Bobby. He was 46. I have no idea if Capt. Harris was married, had children, or how he died. His father, David Clinton Harris, Sr., is buried in the same plot.

Not far away from Lieutenant Bobby and Capt. Harris’ graves is the Hammond family plot. I include them because not only does it contain what I believe is the only one of two white bronze (zinc) markers in the entire cemetery, it also includes two cast iron grave coves and those are even more rare.

A native of Pickens County, S.C. born in 1806, Dudley Whitlock Hammond married Martha Eleanor Speer. He studied medicine in Charleston, S.C. before they moved to Monroe County, Ga. The Hammonds settled in Macon in 1853 and later, Dr. Hammond treated many Confederate soldiers during the Civil War.

One of the Hammond daughters was Rosa Ida, who was born on May 2, 1854. She married Wiley Barnes on Oct. 14, 1875 and the couple had two daughters. Sadly, Rosa died at the age of 30 on Oct. 14, 1884.

Rosa’s handsome white bronze monument is topped by a figure holding a Bible.

A Flower Just Blooming Into Life,
Enticed an Angel’s Eye
Too Pure for the Earth, He Said, “Come Home,”
And Sade the Floweret Die.

Buried beside Rosa is her oldest daughter, Minnie Barnes Bradley. She died in 1927 at the age of 51.

Younger daughter, Nettie, married twice and her husbands were brothers. First husband Henry Ross, an insurance salesman, died in 1905 when he fell from a moving train. Some thought he might have been pushed. Their daughter, Rosa, was named after her grandmother but died at the age of three in 1902.

Nettie then married Dr. Samuel Ross. She died in 1925 at the age of 44. She is listed as being buried at Rose Hill but there is no photo of her marker on Find a Grave. Henry Ross and Dr. Samuel Ross are both listed at a different cemetery in Jones County, Ga. Find a Grave has a photo of Samuel’s grave but none for Henry, whose obituary states he was to be buried at “the old family burying ground.”

Very close to Rosa’s monument are two very rare cast iron grave covers whose name plates have been lost to time. But I think they were most likely two of her sisters who died in infancy.

As I wrote some time ago, Joseph Abrams patented his cast iron grave covers in the 1870s and they can be found mostly in the Southeast. They were usually meant to protect the graves of children. Because of the fragile nature of the fretwork on the nameplates, many of those have vanished over the years. Several are also missing the finials on the top center of the cover, as are these. The finials were often molded in the shape of a sleeping child, a seashell, or the Bible.

“A Pure and Upright Man”

Dr. Hammond died in 1887 at the age of 81, still practicing medicine in his last days.  Elizabeth Hammond died in 1890 at the age of 75. Son-in-law Wiley Barnes and her grandchildren were still living with the Hammond family at the time of her death, her obituary notes. Wiley eventually remarried to Nona Nix in 1896.

On Dr. Hammond’s marker is the epitaph:

He Died as He Lived
A Pure and Upright Man

One of the more tragic stories I found came from looking up information on the marker for Lt. Robert Burgess and his wife, Rebecca Artope Burgess. Southern Graves provided much of the story you will read below.

Born around 1834 in England, Robert George Burgess was the son of Robert Burgess and Jessie Miller Burgess. The family soon moved to America and were settled in New York by about 1838. After the father’s death, the rest of the Burgesses moved south to settle in Macon around 1856.

“Snatched From Earth”

In 1862, Robert joined the Confederate Army with Capt. Massenburg’s Battery, Jackson Artillery. On March 10, 1864, Robert married Rebecca Artope in Macon. James B. Artope and Susan Raine Artope were her parents.

James was a marble cutter and stone mason who hailed from Charleston, S.C. In fact, you can see some of his work at Rose Hill Cemetery. Until I started looking more closely at my photos this week, I hadn’t realized it. In one of the Jewish sections at Rose Hill, the Waxelbaum boys share a marker with James Artope’s name on it. You can see it to the bottom right beneath “Waxelbaum”.

Tragically, Robert and Rebecca’s marriage only lasted five months. Robert’s obituary in the Macon Telegraph on Aug. 27, 1864 explains why:

Death in any form is sad, but to be suddenly snatched from earth while in the enjoyment of health and usefulness is sad indeed. Lieut. R. G. BURGESS, the subject of this notice, while examining an Ammunition Chest in Massenburg’s Battery, was almost instantly killed by the explosion of the chest, on the 12th inst. He lived about four hours after the accident occurred, and death came and relieved him of the intensest agony.

The Artopes would grieve again when Rebecca’s unmarried sister Julia Elvira Artope died in 1868. I believe she was in her 30s. Her monument is located in the Artope plot. I am fairly certain that her father, James, carved it himself but I did not see his name on it. At the top, it says “Meet Me In Heaven.”

James died in 1883 and his wife, Susan, died in 1901. They are buried together with several of their children at Rose Hill.

Rebecca never remarried after Robert’s death. In her later years, she shared a home in Macon with her mother, her spinster sister, Susan, and her bachelor brother, William. She died in 1925 and was buried at Rose Hill.

I’ve got more stories from Rose Hill to share so Part II is soon to follow.

There are several cemeteries that I often talk about visiting, but find myself not being able to make it happen. Rose Hill was in that category for years. Located about 100 miles and 2.5 hours from my house, it’s not that far away. But I don’t usually have that kind of time to set aside when I’ve got a house to run and a family to take care of.

Rose Hill Road Trip

But in April 2018, I finally made the trip. My husband and son were on a Boy Scout camping trip all weekend. My friend and fellow taphophile (cemetery enthusiast) Cathy and her roommate, Lynn, wanted to come along. When Cathy volunteered to drive, I was flying out the door.

We set out on a Sunday morning, the weather already promising to be hot and humid. That’s just a given in Georgia, even in April. You’re going to sweat!

Rose Hill is not the oldest cemetery in Macon but it is the largest at about 65 acres. In 1836, Macon was growing so a committee was named consisting of Simri Rose, Jerry Cowles, J. Williams, and Isaac Scott. They selected its location on the banks of the Ocmulgee River.

Simri Rose played the largest role in its planning, wanting to model the cemetery after the park-like grounds of Cambridge, Mass.’s Mount Auburn Cemetery. He set about planning the carriageways and plots, and planting many trees and shrubs, some of which were imported.

A newspaperman who founded what would become the Macon Telegraph, Rose was also a botanist, horticulturist, and florist. Because of his efforts in planning the cemetery (and other parts of the city), the mayor and council voted to name the cemetery after him and gave him his choice of lots.

Undoubtedly, the most famous residents of Rose Hill are the Allman brothers, Duane and Gregg. The two were part of the Southern Rock band the Allman Brothers. Buried with them is bandmate Berry Oakley. Thousands visit their gravesites every year.

That in itself would make them appropriate to write about. However, the Allman Brothers stand apart because they had a strong bond with Rose Hill Cemetery from the time they arrived in Macon in 1969 from Florida. It was a place of inspiration they valued and returned to often, especially in their early days when money was scarce but music was flowing freely.

The nature of that time was not always about music. Gregg Allman went so far as to say, “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have my way with a lady or two down there.” While I’m hopeful that’s not going on at the cemetery now, I’m sure Gregg was not the only fellow doing so back in those days.

I won’t got into the history of the band. But I want to share some of the lasting legacy of their relationship with Rose Hill and how Southern Rock pilgrims continue to make the journey to their graves to pay their respects.

Before our visit, I was not an especially big fan of the band and didn’t know much about them. My favorite song of theirs has always been “Jessica”.  Their songs “Whipping Post”, “Midnight Rider”, “Statesboro Blues” and “Melissa” are probably better known.

Slide guitar player and founding band member Duane Allman died at the age of 24 on Oct. 29, 1971 in a motorcycle accident. He was the first to be buried at Rose Hill. Bass player Berry Oakley died (or was “set free” as his marker says) on Nov. 11, 1972, also in a motorcycle accident that was only a short distance from where Duane died. He is buried beside Duane.

Southern Rock Pilgrimage

Because of the large numbers of fans that visit the graves, a fence was erected around them as protection. But it is easy to get a good photo through the fence posts and you can easily make out the inscriptions. A steady stream of visitors came by when we were there.

Gregg Allman passed away at the age of 69 from liver cancer in 2017, bringing enormous crowds to Rose Hill to pay their respects at his funeral. His former wife, Cher, was present among the many celebrity mourners.

When we visited Rose Hill, work had not begun on combining Gregg’s plot with Duane and Berry’s. It was cordoned off with plastic-flower encircled chains at the time, as you can see.

When I checked recently to see if progress had been made, I saw that much work had been done. Thanks to the photos of Mike Goldwire and Lou Evatt on Find a Grave, I was able to see it. Gregg’s new stone had been installed. The Allman family funded the entire project. It’s uncertain who the other empty plots are planned for.

The band’s song “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” is actually based on a woman band member and guitarist Dickey Betts was dating at the time he wrote the song in 1970. To hide her identity, Betts named it after a woman buried at Rose Hill, and her grave is located not far from the band’s plot. But many think the song was based on the real Elizabeth Reed herself.

Was Elizabeth Reed Real?

I didn’t know where Elizabeth’s grave was was when we visited so I’m using a photo from Find a Grave. As the band’s first instrumental number, I wasn’t familiar with the title but when I pulled it up online to listen to it, I remembered it at once.

Elizabeth Jones Reed came to Macon to attend Wesleyan College. She married Confederate Army Captain Briggs Hopson Napier on April 26, 1865 and they had 12 children. Three died before reaching adulthood. The couple were farmers and Briggs Napier was at one point editor for the Monroe County newspaper. The couple also operated a local pub in Macon in the early 1900s. Elizabeth died at the age of 89 on May 3, 1935.

“Little Martha” and Duane Allman

The song “Little Martha” has a similar situation attached to it as the one with Elizabeth Reed. Many web sites claim the monument to 12-year-old Martha Ellis was the inspiration for the song. Again, that’s not exactly true. While the band members passed by Martha’s monument often and knew her name, the tune was considered by Duane Allman to be an ode to his then-girlfriend Dixie Meadows. He sometimes called her Martha because of her affection for vintage clothes. Duane would tell her, “You look like Martha Washington.”

But like Elizabeth Reed, Martha Ellis was real. Her father was a Civil War veteran who worked as a druggist before becoming a lumber merchant. Mother Eugenia Rogers was the daughter of Dr. Curran Rogers of Thomaston, Ga. Born in 1883, Martha was the youngest of their seven children.

Only a month before her 13th birthday in January 1896, Martha died of peritonitis (inflammation of the tissues of the stomach). The funeral was held at the Ellis home and she was buried at Rose Hill. Her parents died within two months of each other in 1923 and rest in the plot beside Martha.

“In the Sweet Bye and Bye”

The inscription on Martha’s monument reads:

She was love personified
and her memory is a sweet solace by day,
and pleasant dreams by night
to Mamma, Papa, brothers and sisters.
We will meet again in the sweet bye and bye.

The back cover of the Allman Brothers’ first album, aptly titled “The Allman Brothers Band” features the Bond family tomb, which was the last place in the cemetery that we visited. I had no idea that this site was so important when we were there but I’m glad I photographed it.

Here is the actual Bond monument above the tomb. Time, vandalism, and tornadoes have had their way with it over the years. At one time, there were supposedly four figures surrounding the base but they are long gone.

Born in 1815, Col. Joseph Bond was thought to be one of the wealthiest men in middle Georgia before the Civil War. According to Find a Grave, he was the state’s largest cotton grower and most successful planter. I’m not sure if that’s true. It’s reported that in 1857, he set a world record with a cotton sale of 2,200 bales for $100,000. On March 12, 1859, at the age of 44, Bond was killed by a former overseer he had employed by the name of Brown.

Take a look at what the tomb looks like today. As you can see, it gets a lot of attention from fans and at times, there’s been graffiti spraypainted on it over the years.

After our visit to Rose Hill, we enjoyed a very late lunch at H&H Soul Food Restaurant. It was another favorite haunt of the band. Founded in 1959 by Inez Hill and Louise Hudson, H&H briefly closed when Mama Hill died but reopened with Mama Louise’s blessing. The two were life-long friends of the band, and photos of the musicians are all over the restaurant.

I know when we walked out into the hot Macon sun with full stomachs that I can see (and taste) why people return to H&H year after year to chow down on their home-grown goodness.

At the same time, there’s a lot more to Rose Hill than the Allman Brothers. I’ll be back with more of that next time.