I’m still at Magnolia Cemetery in Helena, Ark. You can find the graves of not one but two African-American legislators at Magnolia. Let’s take a look at their careers.

“Worthy of Emulation”

I sadly admit that my high school and college education didn’t cover much about Reconstruction (1865-1877). In researching William Henry Grey, I learned more about the era than I ever did in my younger days.

Here is Grey’s impressive monument at Magnolia. Just reading the list of his accomplishments on it is awe-inspiring. The Masonic symbolism represented here is also something you don’t see every day. I learned this week that the monument was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2019. There was nothing on or near it at the time of our visit to indicate that designation.

Grey was born in Washington, D.C. in 1829 to free parents. Despite having only a rudimentary formal education, Grey learned parliamentary procedure sometime before 1856 while he accompanied his employer, Virginia governor Henry A. Wise, to sessions of Congress.

In 1854, Grey wed Henrietta Winslow, who became the mother of his nine children. A member of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, he became an AME lay minister. The Grey family had moved to Helena by 1863 and operated a grocery/bakery business there.

Eloquent Speaker

In 1868, the first year that most of the African-American population could vote in Arkansas, Grey was among the eight African-American members elected to the second post-Civil War Constitutional Convention. He spoke eloquently on the convention floor more than 25 times, primarily on matters relating to African-American welfare.

Grey was admitted to the practice of law on July 6, 1869, but there is no indication he ever practiced as an attorney. Republican Governor Powell Clayton appointed Grey as clerk of the circuit court in Phillips County and ex-officio recorder of deeds for several counties in 1870.

Grey was elected to the Arkansas General Assembly. In 1872, as a delegate to the Republican National Convention, he seconded the nomination of Ulysses S. Grant, becoming the first African-American to address a national presidential nominating convention. Grey also served as the commissioner of immigration and state lands from 1872 to 1874.

While Grey was in New York in 1873 to supervise arrangements for Arkansas’s exhibit to be shipped to the World’s Exposition in Vienna, Austria, he suffered a stroke, forcing him to return to Little Rock.

Senator Grey

In 1874, the Democratic Party regained the governorship and a legislative majority. The legislature immediately voted to hold a third post-war Constitutional Convention. When it was announced, Grey spoke out against it, anticipating that delegates would try to take away African-American citizenship rights. In 1875, he won a special election for a seat in the Arkansas Senate due to the passing of senator John Willis Williams.

By this time, the push for Jim Crow government was coming on strong. In September 1878, Grey suffered another stroke. In the 1880 U.S. Census, Grey is listed as paralyzed and he disappeared from politics after his state Senate service. He never recovered from his 1878 stroke, dying in Helena on Nov. 8, 1888.

Grey’s monument was erected seven years after he died on Aug. 13, 1895. I found a newspaper clipping announcing the unveiling at a meeting of the “colored Masonic Lodge” in Helena.

You can read the many accomplishments Grey achieved on his monument. I am puzzled as to why his 1875 Senate service is not listed on it. His epitaph truly moved me:

Up all the various graded steps

From Life obscure to Fame

Thou’st studied toiled prayed and fought

To leave thy race a name —

A name in legislature hall,

And high official station,

The highest in the mystic craft,

Worthy of emulation.

Masonic Involvement

Having joined the St. John Masonic Lodge in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1852, Grey was named first Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Arkansas when it was established in 1873 as a merger of three different lodges.

Topped with a Masonic “G”, the third tier of the monument exhibits a simple anchor, which is a Masonic symbol and a Christian symbol of hope.

The fourth tier is engraved with a number of Masonic symbols. Starting on the left is a bell, followed by a pillar, topped by the sun. Next is an open book with the Masonic square and compass engraved on its pages topped by an eye with rays of light (likely the All-Seeing Eye of Horus). Continuing right is a second pillar topped by a crescent moon and surrounding stars. The engraving is completed with a ladder on the far right. All of these are known to have Masonic significance. Below all those symbols is a checkerboard foreground, also known to have Masonic significance.

I’m not going to to into what it all means but I’m sure if you asked a Mason, they could tell you.

I don’t know where Grey’s wife, Henrietta, or any of his children are buried, or if any of them are buried at Magnolia Cemetery. Records indicate that Henrietta remarried in 1889 to a John Bryant and continued to live in Helena according to a 1910 U.S. Census record. She disappears after that.

Elected Four Times to Congress

In my last post, I mentioned Cliff Dean’s blog “My Delta World” and thanks to him, I found out a great deal about another African-American legislator buried at Magnolia.

Born in Tennessee in 1853, Jacob N. Donohoo was likely the child of slaves. He moved to Arkansas in the 1870s to live with an uncle. Elected to the Arkansas House of Representatives in 1877, Donohoo was its youngest African-American member. He was elected to the Arkansas House of Representatives four times. In 1879, he married Mollie E. Owens in Helena. They had six children including two sons, Green and Jacob, and four daughters, Frankie, Laura, Fannie May, and Nina.

In addition to being involved in farming, operating a mercantile store, and editing a newspaper, Donohoo managed to practice law and advocate for education. Jacob also served eight years as deputy internal revenue collector under President William McKinley and was appointed for a third term under President Theodore Roosevelt.

Like his fellow legislator William Grey, Donohoo was also an active Mason. He was a proud member of the M.W. Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Arkansas, which still exists today.

Jacob Donohoo died at age 63 on Nov. 11, 1914 in Helena.

Mosaic Templars of America

You can barely make out the seal above Jacob’s name on his marker, my photo is not the best. It represents the fraternal organization known as the Mosaic Templars of America (MTA), a black fraternal order founded by John E. Bush and Chester W. Keatts, two former slaves, in Little Rock in 1883. The name of the organization, taken from the Biblical figure Moses who emancipated Hebrew slaves, elected the Templars’ ideals of love, charity, protection, and brotherhood.

The MTA originally provided illness, death, and burial insurance during an era when few basic services were available to African-Americans. Unlike most fraternal organizations of that time, the MTA had chapters for female members as well.

By 1905, the MTA had lodges across the state and thousands of members, several living in Helena. In the 1920s, it claimed chapters in 26 states and six foreign countries, making it one of the largest black organizations in the world. But by the 1930s, the MTA began feeling the effects of the Great Depression and ceased operations in America. One single chapter still exists in Barbados.

I am sharing a photo of the grave marker of Laura Blue, also an MTA member, so you can get a better idea of what the seal looks like. She died in 1920 due to complications from Bright’s Disease, a kidney disorder.

Thanks to the blog “Kathleen Maca: Tales from Texas”, I found out a lot more about these markers. According her, the MTA operated a monument department as early as 1911 that provided grave markers for deceased members. Operations were managed by the state jurisdictions until 1914, when the MTA created a national monument department to centralize operations and cut costs. Members paid an annual tax to finance the department, and were promised a marble marker. This reminds me or the tree markers provided to policy holders who paid an extra fee by Woodmen of the World during this same era.

Interestingly, I photographed two MTA markers at a cemetery in nearby (to me) Lawrenceville, Ga. several years ago and had no idea what it represented. Now I do.

Sad Footnote

I found a sad footnote to Jacob Donohoo’s life. His oldest daughter with Mollie was Nina, born in 1879. Helena’s 1909 business directory lists her as working there as a music teacher. By 1914, she had moved to Chicago, Ill. This newspaper article details her death at age 35.

There is a Find a Grave memorial for Nina as being buried at Magnolia but I did not see a marker for her when I was there. But I also didn’t look for it since I didn’t know about her when I visited. Regardless, I am sure Jacob and Mollie were devastated by the news.

Next week. I’m going to finish up with Part III by sharing the history of an African-American fraternal organization with roots in Helena, the Supreme Royal Circle of Friends.

We crossed the Mississippi River (and the border between Mississippi and Arkansas), heading for Helena-West Helena, Ark. The two cities consolidated in 2006 into one. For simplicity’s sake, I’ll refer to it as Helena. It was founded in 1833 by Nicholas Rightor and is named after the daughter of Sylvanus Phillips, an early settler of Phillips County and the county’s name sake.

A major Civil War battle did take place here. In June 1863, Confederate Commander Theophilus Holmes planned and executed three failed attacks on the Union-held town. Confederates withdrew on July 4, 1863. There were 1,636 Confederate casualties and 205 Union casualties.

The Blues Highway

From 1906 to 1946, Helena was a terminal point on the former Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad. A thriving blues community developed there in the 1940s and 1950s, explaining why we saw the Blues Highway earlier that day at Barbee Cemetery.

In November 1941, a white businessman established the town’s first radio station, KFFA. A group of blues musicians were given a one-hour radio spot on the condition that they gain a sponsor. King Biscuit Flour agreed to do it. The King Biscuit Entertainers were sponsored, as well as the show King Biscuit Time, featuring blues musicians. It’s still going strong today.

Helena’s population of about 10,500 is about 75 percent African-American and has some historic cemeteries that I wanted to visit. Magnolia Cemetery has a story to tell and the community has been working hard in recent years on finding new ways of sharing it.

According to Find a Grave, Magnolia Cemetery has 90 memorials but I know there are many more unmarked graves and some newer ones yet to be recorded.

Some recently-created panels located outside the gates describe Magnolia Cemetery’s history. This is something I don’t often see at an African-American cemetery and I was happy to learn more.

Magnolia Cemetery was originally part of segregated Evergreen Cemetery. The Evergreen Cemetery Company purchased land from three prominent Helena families to establish Evergreen in 1870. Unfortunately, 20 years later, both white and black sections of the cemetery were in poor condition. A group of African-American men formed the Magnolia Cemetery Association in 1899, purchasing the black section for $400.

If you’re standing inside the gates, you can see the area of Magnolia Cemetery’s more recent burials located up the hill. I went there last. The older burials are to the left and can be found on both sides of a long road.

I observed that there is no order to where people are buried at Magnolia. That sounds like a criticism but it isn’t meant to be. African-American cemeteries were not easy to maintain for a number of reasons. Lack of funds and manpower were part of that. People took care of it as best they could when they could. It had been recently mowed, which is more than I can say for many cemeteries I visit.

A Homemade Tribute

The first grave I photographed was this homemade one for Nelma Lee Jackson. Born in 1923 to cotton farmer Frank Jackson and Nellie Lewis Jackson, Nelma was one of three children. According to the 1940 U.S. Census, Frank worked on a WPA (Works Progress Administration) road construction crew and Nellie was a cook in a restaurant. Nelba had completed at least sixth grade.

Unfortunately, Nelba contracted tuberculosis. Because of her race, it was likely difficult for her to get good medical treatment in rural Arkansas. She was working as a waitress at the Dreamland Cafe in nearby Watson, Ark. when she died on Oct. 15, 1943. Her marker says Oct. 14, 1943. Her marker stands by itself. If her parents are buried there, the graves are not marked.

Died in the Hospital

You can get a glimpse of the grave marker for Daisy Caradine Taylor behind Nelba’s. Born in Mississippi in 1910, Daisy Caradine’s parents were mill worker Mose Caradine and Carrie Braxton Caradine. The Cardines were “mulatto”, an antiquated term for a mixed race background. At some point, she married Herman Taylor. I don’t know if they had any children together as I could not find census records for them.

In January 1943, Daisy went to Baptist State Hospital (now known as Arkansas Baptist Hospital) in Little Rock to have an operation to remove several large fibroids from her uterus. This is a procedure that can be done with outpatient surgery today. Already suffering from anemia and hypertension, Daisy was put under anesthesia and went into shock. She died on January 15, 1943 at age 32.

The Proffitt Women

Behind these two graves is the Proffitt plot containing three grave markers, surrounded by a low block wall and a chain link gate. It reminded me of some of the plots at Laurel Grove South Cemetery, an African-American cemetery in Savannah, Ga.

The plot contains the graves of Aria Wright Proffitt (1872-1960), her daughter Elizabeth (1910-1913), and Aria’s daughter-in-law Emma Dallas Proffitt (1907-1965). Born in Arkansas, Aria was the daughter of Thomas Wright and Annie Kennell Wright, one of seven children.

Aria’s husband, Moses “Mose” Proffitt has an interesting background. He enlisted with the 1st Regiment Infantry of the U.S. Colored Troops in 1863. I’m not sure when. It later became the 46th U.S. Colored Troops in 1864. When he returned to Helena, he resumed life as a farmer and married Mariah Jane Williamson in 1869 and they had at least three children together.

I’m not sure if Mariah died or they divorced. But Mose married Aria on March 13, 1893. Born in 1837, Mose was considerably older than Aria. He began receiving a pension for his military service in 1891. They had four children together, Moses Jr., Willie, Hosea, and Elizabeth. I think Willie died in childhood as I can find no record of him beyond the 1900 U.S. Census.

According to Elizabeth’s marker, she was born in 1910 and died in 1913. However, she appears in the 1910 U.S. Census as being four years old at the time. That is the only record I could find for her anywhere. I believe this marker came much later, in the 1960s when her mother and aunt passed away. According to the census, Mose was a minister by that time and Moses Jr. was working in a dry goods store in Helena.

I don’t have an exact date but because Aria began receiving a widow’s pension in 1924, I believe that’s the year Mose died. He had a will drawn up in May 1920, leaving behind his property to Aria, Moses Jr., and Hosea. It was probated in November 1924. I suspect he may be buried in the family plot with no marker, but I’m not sure.

Aria died in 1960. Ancestry has her death date as Sept. 12, 1960 but I can find no record of it. She was 87.

Deadly Fire

Aria must have been proud of her sons. Moses Jr. received an accounting degree at Howard University and served in the U.S. Army during World War II. In the 60s, he helped organize Seaway National Bank in Chicago. He died in Chicago on Sept. 10, 1985 but I don’t know where he is buried.

Hosea also attended Howard University and went on to get a degree in dentistry. He returned to Helena and served the community in that capacity for 56 years. He married his wife, Emma Dallas, in the 1930s. Aria lived with them during the 1940s.

Emma’s death was sudden and tragic. At 3 a.m. on Jan. 14, 1965, the home she shared with Hosea in Helena caught on fire. Firemen managed to pull Hosea out of the home through a window and he survived. Emma, her mother, and her sister, were trapped inside and perished. Emma was only 57.

Hosea later remarried and continued to serve Helena as a devoted dentist. He died 20 days after his older brother, Moses, on Sept. 29, 1985. I don’t know where he is buried either.

The Tailor’s Wife

The last grave I wanted to share is that of Mattie Garrett. She is in a shaded plot off to the side bordered by cement blocks .

Born in 1890 to Ed Lawrence and Rosie Richardson Lawrence, Mattie married James Garrett in 1910. He worked as a presser/tailor in a retail store, a skilled trade. According to the 1920 U.S. Census, they had four children. The youngest was only seven months old at the time the census was recorded.

Mattie died on Dec. 4, 1920. Her death certificate lists her cause of death as “pelvic peritonitis”, which I had never heard of before. It’s defined as inflammation involving the peritoneum surrounding the uterus and Fallopian tubes. Since she had given birth that year to a son, Richard, I wonder if it was related to that. Again, good medical care was likely hard to find for persons of color in rural Arkansas in the 1920s. Another young woman, gone in her prime like Daisy Taylor. Her father, Ed, would die a year later. He is buried near her.

Honoring Six Lives

I didn’t have a plan for how this blog post would unfold. I more or less followed the pictures. The African-American women of Helena lived hard lives, something I had suspected but saw proven as the research revealed it. Many like Daisy died young, while others like Aria managed to live a long life and raise sons who made their mark in the world. Like the graves scattered about the cemetery, there is no rhyme or reason to the hands they were dealt

It’s my honor to share their stories here in hopes they will not be forgotten.

Join me soon for Part II as I make my way further down the road into Magnolia Cemetery.

Our next stop was Barbee Cemetery, located very close to the Mississippi/Arkansas border in the tiny town of Moon in Coahoma County. What earned it a spot on our itinerary was because it was alleged to have been established on an Indian mound.

Nearby is the Yazoo Pass, a small, winding stream that connects Moon Lake to the Coldwater River. Long ago, several large plantations were started near Moon Lake. Mound Place was a large plantation owned by James Lusk Alcorn, who established a post office by 1860. The Barbee family for whom the cemetery is named lived near Mount Place.

When we pulled up to the cemetery, which is off a busy thoroughfare called the Blues Highway, we did see what looked like a mound. Whether or not it is an authentic Indian mound, I don’t know. There is frustratingly little information about this cemetery. But because there are Indian mounds located in this area, it very well could be.

According to Find a Grave, there are nearly 500 burials recorded at Barbee Cemetery. The sign says it was established in 1850. The oldest marked grave belongs to Thomas Barbee, who died in 1865. There are 33 Barbees buried there.

Meet the Barbees

There’s a historical marker near the road that talks about Hunt’s Mill, the site of a brief 1863 Civil War skirmish. William and Thomas Hunt owned and operated Hunt’s Mill, which Thomas Barbee and his relatives used.

Thanks to Cliff Dean, who writes the blog My Delta World, I found a little information on Thomas Barbee. He was a local farmer who owned land near Hunt’s Mill, and his father and brother lived in the area. Dean explains that during the Civil War, Confederate partisans were common. These partisans were irregular cavalry units made up of men who would fight as regular soldiers and then return home as citizens. Thomas Barbee was a member of one of these partisan bands.

Dean’s blog post explains how Thomas got detained by Union forces in March 1863 not long after the Battle of Hunt’s Mill but returned home safely a few months later. In 1865, he crossed paths with Confederate Capt. William Forest, brother of noted Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest. Forrest was in the Mississippi Delta looking for horses and mules.  He and his men took some from Thomas and then traveled to nearby Friars Point.  Thomas went to get his property back, but was killed by Captain Forrest. Ironically, Forrest claimed he thought Barbee was a Union man.

An added touch of irony is that another Forrest brother, Capt. Aaron Forrest, was present at the Battle of Hunt’s Mill back in March 1863.

Thomas Barbee died at age 33, the exact day in 1865 in which he died is unknown. His wife, Susan Morgan Barbee, died in 1872 and is buried near him.

Ophelia Barbee Haynes Sanders

Thomas and Susan Barbee’s youngest child, Ophelia Annie Barbee, was born on Dec. 10, 1864. So she never knew her father, and her mother died when she was 8. She has one of the most unusual graves in the cemetery so I wanted to find out more about her.

Ophelia’s Find a Grave memorial states that she married Elisha Thomas Haynes on May 24, 1877, making her 13 years old at the time. Not unheard of in those days. She and Elisha had nine children together. Elisha died on April 13, 1899 at age 45.

Elisha’s monument is pretty interesting in itself. He must have been a member of Woodmen of the World because he has a nicely carved tree monument. I noticed there are a number of WOW graves at Barbee Cemetery. His surname is spelled out in the woodsy font WOW is known for. Not all tree monuments are WOW markers, but this one is. How can you tell? There are clues.

In the photo below, you can see the mallet and axe that were WOW symbols. Note that the bottom of the mallet is resting above the WOW motto (not easy to see through the lichen) “Dum Tacet Clamat,” which means “Though silent, he speaks.” You can also just make out a bird in the upper right corner, another WOW symbol.

But that’s not the end. There was a sweet surprise hiding behind that tree! I don’t know which came first, the circle or the tree. But it definitely reminded me of the ones we had just seen at Oxford Memorial Cemetery and reinforced my theory that this type of grave marker was a regional favorite.

Ophelia operated a boarding house in Denton (about 35 miles from Barbee Cemetery) after Elisha died, where she met her second husband, William Benjamin Sanders. He was a widower with children of his own. They wed in 1901. One of William Sanders’ daughters, Helen Josephine Sanders, would later marry Ophelia and E.T. Haynes’s son, Wendell Thomas Haynes, Sr.

Ophelia and her new family eventually moved to Memphis, where she worked as a housekeeper. She died there on Nov. 10, 1910 at age 45 due to complications from gallstones. She was brought home for burial beside Elijah. Let’s take a look at her grave.

The Old Rugged Cross

Ophelia is interred in an above ground brick vault, covered in what I believe to be some kind of plaster. It is fronted by a monument clearly stamped with the Supreme Forest of the Woodmen Circle. This was a women’s auxiliary to Woodmen of the World. The emblem for the SFWC is a shield with stars and stripes and crossed axes. One of its very attractive benefits was life insurance for women, a radical idea in its day. Since Elijah was a WOW member, it’s not surprising Ophelia was in the Woodmen Circle. It also carries the popular “Old Rugged Cross” theme frequently seen on monuments of that era.

It would be wonderful if Ophelia’s vault were properly sealed and her monument cleaned. Here’s a side view.

Leigh Haynes (1890-1895), one of the children of Ophelia and Elijah who died in childhood, is buried beside them. Amelia Barbee Haynes (1855-1883), Ophelia’s older sister who married Andrew Jackson Haynes, is buried nearby.

One Man, Five Wives

Ophelia and Amelia’s older brother, John Elijah Barbee (1848-1912), the eldest Barbee child, is also buried in Barbee Cemetery. He was married five times, with his last wife outliving him. I can’t say I’ve ever encountered such a situation. Three wives? Yes. Four wives? I think once or twice. But never five.

Keeping track of John Barbee’s wives is no easy task but thanks to Ancestry, I think I’ve got them in proper order. There’s a note that says: “John married 5 times – his marker is in the Lula Cemetery (formerly the Barbee Cemetery). As each wife died, the previous wives were moved down the hill so that the 4th wife is buried closest to his tombstone. (The 5th wife outlived him by many years).” That’s not exactly true. His first three wives are buried at Barbee Cemetery, the fourth and fifth are buried elsewhere.

John married Sinna Fannie Franklin in January 1874, they had two sons named Thomas (1874-1891) and Willie (1876). Both are buried at Barbee Cemetery. Oddly, Fannie’s side of the grave marker she shares with John and second wife, Mary, is inscribed with the death date Oct. 30, 1874. That would make it impossible for her to have given birth to Willie in 1876. I think this stone wasn’t carved until after John died in 1912 and an error was made. I believe she died on Oct. 20, 1876 or 1877. She would have been in her mid 20s.

John married Mary C. Bird on Dec. 5, 1878. They had three children, John (1879-1899), Letha (1882-1946), and Robert (1884-1912). Mary died on Oct. 20, 1884, about a month after giving birth to Robert.

Wife #3 was Viola Stovall, and this marriage was rather quick. She and John were married on Dec. 9, 1884, less than two months after Mary died. They had three children, Fannie (1886-1969), Walter (1888-1924), and Lester (1891-1959). Viola died on March 1, 1899 at age 32. She has her own monument further down the hill at Barbee Cemetery, I did not get a photo of it.

At some point later in 1899, John married widow Inez Hill Bridger. She had two daughters from her first marriage. I don’t believe they had any children together. She died on May 21, 1901 at age 30. She is buried at Rose Hill Cemetery in Sardis, Miss. with her first husband, William Henry Bridger.

John married a final time to Jennie Gordon in 1902. They had two daughters, Amelia (1904-1983) and Ophelia (1905-1995), named after John’s sisters. John died on Jan. 9, 1912 at age 63. Jennie did not remarry and died on Jan. 14, 1936 at age 71. She is buried at Blue Mountain Cemetery in Tippah County, Miss.

Burials are still taking place at Barbee Cemetery, the latest one recorded is January 2022. The newer graves are toward the back side of the cemetery away from the mound.

It was time to leave Mississippi to cross the border into Arkansas to visit two very different cemeteries in Helena. I hope you’ll join me there next time.

It’s time to wrap things up at Oxford Memorial Cemetery but I have a lot more to show you before I’m done.

When I looked at my photos from this cemetery, I noticed the profusion of oblong-shaped grave markers with open centers. Some of them are plain. Some of them are wood-themed, with little nubs on them. It’s not like I haven’t seen this style before. But not so many and not over such a long time span. If you look below, you can see an example of the West family plot. These are plain round circles. You can even see one that is smaller for a child.

Sometimes the family plots featured a larger surname marker with individual rings, the Falkner family has that kind of set up.

These circles did afford a family the opportunity to plant flowers inside the ring if they chose to. I have seen that done. But I didn’t see that happening here, probably because the graves are older and there’s nobody left to care for the flowers regularly.

Segregation in the Cemetery

Like many cemeteries, Oxford Memorial Cemetery used to be segregated. I don’t know when that changed but there’s definitely an area for black graves. I use the term “black” and not “African-American” because in looking at the dates on some of those graves, the deceased were potentially native-born Africans who were enslaved part of their lives. I mentioned William Faulkner’s family servant, Callie Clark, in Part I of this series. She is buried in this area of the cemetery.

This is the grave for Anna Seward. I could find nothing about her beyond the fact she was thought to be 60 years old when she died on Sept. 15, 1893. That would have made her date of birth around 1833, so it’s possible she was born in Africa. While her marker rests on the ground, she does have a “woodsy” style circle around her grave but it is filled in and not open.

I’ve featured wood-themed and tree-shaped markers in many of my past blog posts. The 1890s were a prime time for this theme so it’s not a surprise you’d find it here at this time. Part of me wonders if it came sometime later. I suspect the marker was there first and the circle came later.

Then you have the nearby grave of Tamar Patton, born at the end of the Civil War in 1865. Born in Tennessee, she was first married to a man with the last name of Orange. By 1900, she was widowed and in 1910, had remarried to Steven Patton. She spent the last three decades of her life in Lafayette County where Oxford is located.

Tamar died in the later half of 1923 at age 58. She must have known her death was near because she prepared a will in March of that year. It was probated in June 1923. Her will tells us she had eight children and she bequeathed what funds she had (after paying for her grave, funeral, and debts) to those children. Two of those children, Joseph and and James, were minors when she died. Steven Patton is not mentioned at all but I suspect he may have been deceased already.

Tamar’s marker has the same wood-themed circle as Ann Steward, but she has a square with her name incorporated into it.

I also photographed the graves of William Hair and his wife, Nancy Jane Wheeler Hair, buried across the way. They were white. According to U.S. Census records, it looks like both William and Nancy were born in the 1850s in Mississippi. They wed in 1888 in Layette County. I don’t think they ever had any children but a nephew was living with them in 1910.

William died at age 70 in 1927 and Nancy died in June 1934 at age 77. You can see that their grave circles are plain with the square at the base.

Accident With a Winchester Rifle

In some cases, I found a circle with an attached monument. This pair was made for Eugene Gaither Smith (1868-1901) and his wife, Annie Carter Smith (1873-1958). Annie outlived Eugene by 57 years. I knew there had to be a story there.

I apologize for the poor quality of this photo. The sun going down cast shadows and as you can see, that made an impact.

Born in Mississippi in 1868, Eugene married Annie Carter in Panola County, Miss. on Dec. 18, 1895. Their daughter, Gaither, was born on Oct. 27, 1898. The family moved to Memphis, Tenn. and Eugene got a job inspecting railroad cars for the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Memphis Railroad. They had a second daughter, Pauline, in 1900.

Sometime in May 1901, Eugene fell ill with malaria. He was out of work for several weeks but after recovering, returned to work on June 14, 1901. Later that morning, he was found dead from a gunshot wound from a Winchester rifle found nearby leaning up against a wall in the corner of the car inspector’s shed.

The above article detailed that while at first Eugene’s death was thought to be a suicide, this was later ruled out. Co-worker James Matthews owned the Winchester and kept it in the corner of the shed. Eugene had a habit of going into the shed every morning to borrow some tobacco out of the jacket Matthews kept with his rifle. The conclusion was drawn that Eugene continued his habit that day, but this time jostling the rifle and accidentally setting it off.

All the same, it was a terrible tragedy. Annie remained in Memphis with Gaither and Pauline, sharing her home with her half-brother, Nathan, who was a machinist, and a boarder. By 1920, Nathan had moved out. But Gaither and Pauline were both working as stenographers to support the household, along with a fellow stenographer who boarded with them. Gaither married James E. Rogers on Oct. 6, 1920.

By 1930, Annie had moved to New Albany, Miss. with Gaither and her family, which included a grandson. Pauline married and remained in Memphis. Annie returned to Memphis at some point to live with Pauline and her family. She died at the age of 85 on July 19, 1958. Her body was sent home to Oxford for burial beside Eugene.

While it is difficult to see, Eugene’s marker has a number of symbols on it. An anchor signifying hope since he was never a sailor or worked in the maritime trade. A sunrise, which I’m not sure about in terms of what it means. There are also the three links of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF), signifying friendship, love, and truth. He was a member of that fraternal order.

So what can we conclude from all these grave circles? I can only guess that the major stone mason in the area from the 1880s to the 1920s offered these to his Oxford clients and they bought them. It may have simply been a regional trend because I found more at the next cemetery I visited down the road.

Oxford’s District Judge Robert A. Hill

Judge Robert Andrews Hill (1811-1900) has no grave circles of any kind in his plot, which he shares with his wife, daughter, son-in-law, and two grandchildren. But I was intrigued by his career and his family so I wanted to feature it.

Born in Iredell County, N.C. in 1811, Hill was the son of David Hill and Rhoda Andrews. The Hills moved to Tennessee when Robert was young. He wed Mary Andrews in 1833. They would later have two children, Robert (who died in childhood) and Marietta “Metta”.

Hill was elected a constable in 1834 and later became a justice of the peace. He resigned in 1844 to take up the practice of law, doing so in Waynesboro, Tenn., until 1847, when the legislature chose him as a state district attorney general. He held that position until his defeat in an 1855 popular election. That year, he moved to Tishomingo County, Miss. to form a law partnership with John F. Arnold. In 1858, he was elected probate judge of Tishomingo County, a post he held until 1865.

A Whig before the war and a Republican after it, Hill favored the Lincoln-Johnson plans for constitutional measures for the restoration of the South. He served as a delegate to the 1865 Mississippi constitutional convention.

In 1866, Pres. Andrew Johnson appointed Hill to the federal judiciary for the two districts that made up Mississippi. The court moved from Pontotoc to Oxford, where Judge Hill took up residence. In 1875, he publicly called on the voters of Mississippi “of both races and all parties” to peaceably register and vote in congressional elections and thereby show “to the world that, though composed of different races and entertaining different opinions, we are capable of self-government and can live in peace.”

I do think Judge Hill must have had a sense of humor. I found this anecdote about him in the newspaper.

Hill was elected president of the Mississippi State Bar Association in January 1889 while a sitting federal judge. He retired from the federal bench in 1891 and continued to live in Oxford, where he served as a trustee of Ole Miss. His wife, Mary, passed away on Dec. 12, 1898. Judge Hill died at age 89 on July 2, 1900.

Judge Hill left the bulk of his estate to his daughter, Metta, who married George Hill. George also worked in the courts. They had two children, Myrtle and Robert Jr. Judge Hill’s will singles out Robert Jr., leaving him his gold watch, his gold-headed cane, and money for law books and law school tuition. He clearly thought much of him and his future.

A Sad Footnote

Sadly, Robert Jr. would die only three years after his grandfather. On Aug. 1, 1903, he married a young lady named Bessie Dismukes while “sitting in a buggy at Gallatin, Tenn.” according to his obituary. His parents were reportedly very displeased at this. Despondent over their reaction, Robert overdosed on morphine at the Maxwell House Hotel in Nashville, Tenn. five days later and died on Aug 6, 1903 at age 26.

Robert’s death took a toll on his parents. George Hill went into a decline and died in Biloxi, Miss. on July 17, 1907 at age 72. Metta died a few years later on Nov. 8, 1910 at age 67. The three of them are buried together. Myrtle, who never married, died in 1938 and is also buried with them, but her marker is much smaller and in the back corner behind them.

Later that night, Sarah and I went into downtown Oxford to have dinner and walk around. It has a beautiful town square with plenty of shops and restaurants for visitors and college students alike.

Next time, I’ll be at Barbee Cemetery near the Mississippi/Arkansas border.