Southern Graves

Daniel Stetson Sanford was a son of Daniel Benjamin Sanford and Elizabeth C. "Lizzie" Stetson. His lengthy obituary also necessitates a separate post. Daniel died 6 October 1924 at Wesley Memorial Hospital (name changed to Emory University Hospital mid-1930s) in DeKalb County, Georgia. Cause of death was Myocardial insufficiency; Edema of lungs. Daniel's widow was Annie L. Robinson Sanford (1872-1954). Both were buried in the family lot at Memory Hill Cemetery in Milledgeville, Baldwin County, Georgia. Obituary from 8 October 1924 Union Recorder (Milledgeville, Georgia) - JUDGE SANFORD DIED IN ATLANTA One of Milledgeville's Best Known Citizens Buried Tuesday Afternoon. Large Crowd Pays Last Sad Tribute of Respect. A gloom was thrown over the city early Monday morning, October 6th, by the announcement that Judge D. S. Sanford, had died at the Wesley Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, where he had gone about two weeks ago for treatment. Judge Sanford had been in f...

Continuing on with a profile of members of the Stetson and Sanford families buried in Memory Hill Cemetery at Milledgeville, Georgia -- Daniel Benjamin Sanford gets a post all to himself. His life, and six years later his death, was discussed in two publications. First up is Georgia: Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons Arranged in Cyclopedic Form edited by Allen D. Candler and Clement A. Evans (Atlanta, State Historical Association, 1906). Sanford, Daniel B. , may well be entitled the Nestor of the bar of Baldwin county, since he has been engaged in the practice of his profession in Milledgeville for two score of years, and for eighteen consecutive years he presided on the bench of the court of ordinary of the county. He was captain of a company in a Georgia regiment of the Confederate service in the Civil war, in which he made a gallant record, and has been a citizen of prominence and influence in his county, having marked professional prestige ...

On the image below, I have labeled gravestones for eleven members of the Stetson and Sanford families. This family plot (no. 22) is located in section D of the east side of Memory Hill Cemetery in Milledgeville, Baldwin County, Georgia. The elder parents of the group are Daniel B. and Edith Dean Stetson. According to his gravestone, Daniel "departed this life Feb 24th, 1865; aged 54 years, 10 mo's & 6 days." And per his death notice, Daniel was "an old and highly esteemed merchant and also a leading and influential member of the Baptist church." Edith was born in Portsmouth, Virginia on 29 February 1811; and died in Milledgeville on 30 October 1883. A portion of her epitaph reads, "After bearing patiently her full share of the burdens of life & doing her duty faithfully with a christian spirit, God called her home to rest." An obituary from the 6 November 1883 Union and Recorder (Milledgeville, GA): DIED. -- Mrs. Edith Stetson, widow of...

Today's obituary comes with a bit of a tip. Don't think your search will surely be fruitless if you scour newspapers for an obituary well after a death date. I always, always look for at least a full month after the death date, and here's an example of an obituary published almost five months after the fact. Her name was Vertitia Massey, and she was laid to rest in Memory Hill Cemetery at Milledgeville, Baldwin County, Georgia. Union Recorder (Milledgeville, Georgia) 8 August 1899 - pg. 7 [via Georgia Historic Newspapers ] OBITUARY. MASSEY. -- Mrs. W. A. Massey, nee Miss Vertitia F. Harrell, was born August 8, 1856, in Milledgeville, Ga., joined the Methodist Church 1874, under the ministry of Rev. A. J. Jarrell; married W. A. Massey Nov. 24, 1880, and died triumphantly March 23, 1899. In many respects sister Massey was a remarkable woman. For twenty-five years she was not only a member of the church, but an earnest, active, wise, Christian worker, in the vineyard of...

On the day Col. John M. Brown died -- 26 July 1864 -- the following was published in Milledgeville, Georgia's Confederate Union : WOUNDED. Lieut. Col. John M. Brown of the State Troops, was wounded in the battle of Peachtree Creek whilst leading his regiment. He is brother to the Governor and is now at the Executive Mansion, and not expected to live. It's likely that several days passed before people farther from Milledgeville learned of the death of this brother of the Georgia governor. Daily Constitutionalist (Augusta, Georgia) Sunday, 7 August 1864 - pg. 1 [via GenealogyBank ] DEATH OF LT. COL. BROWN. -- In the battle near Atlanta on 22d ult., Lieut. Col. John M. Brown was severely wounded, and was brought to the Executive Mansion in this city, where he died on Monday. This is the second brother which the Governor of Georgia has lost in the present war. We learn that Col. Brown was about twenty-five years of age, and was a gallant officer. He had been wounded at Re...

Samuel Walker was born in Putnam County, Georgia on 4 September 1835. Nine days after his 61st birthday, Samuel had a "stroke of apoplexy," and doctors labeled him "critically ill." Two days later, Samuel was dead. He died in Milledgeville, GA on 15 September 1896 and was buried in Memory Hill Cemetery. Another gravestone in the same lot stands as a reminder to what I am sure was a particularly bad year for Samuel. The year was 1873 and in the span of one week, Samuel lost a son, a wife, and a niece to sickness. The tragedy was noted in local newspapers. Macon Weekly Telegraph (Georgia) Tuesday, 11 February 1873 - pg. 4 [via GenealogyBank ] Note: this paper cited Milledgeville's Federal Union . DISTRESSING FATALITY. -- We mentioned in our last issue that Joel Walker, son of Samuel Walker, died on Monday night of last week, of meningetis [sic] contracted at Mercer College. On Wednesday, Alice Dillard, a niece of Mrs. Walker, a lovely girl of about twelv...

Capt. Edwards was laid to rest in Memory Hill Cemetery at Milledgeville, Baldwin County, Georgia. His wife, at least two children, and at least one brother are in the same lot ( East Side, Section E, Lot 12 ). Macon Telegraph (Georgia) Thursday, 22 November 1906 - pg. 6 [via GenealogyBank ] Death of Capt. John M. Edwards. ATLANTA, Ga., Nov. 21. -- Capt. John M. Edwards, of Milledgeville, one of the best known men in that section of the State died in a private sanitarium in Atlanta yesterday. He came to Atlanta four years ago to undergo an operation. He was a veteran of the war and served throughout the conflict gallantly in the Confederate army and won distinction, fighting through the siege of Vicksburg. He was especially prominent in Baldwin County politics and for years served in the county as treasurer. Captain Edwards was also prominent in secret order circles and was a member of the Masons, Knights Templar and Mystic Shrine. Capt. Edwards was 67 years of age, and is s...

Annie was born 9 September 1861 in Georgia to William R. and Harriett Ennis. She married William R. Tyler in Baldwin County, GA on 1 June 1881. Six years later, Annie became ill and died, just a few weeks before her twenty-sixth birthday. Burial was in Milledgeville's Memory Hill Cemetery. The local newspaper chronicled Annie's demise - Union Recorder (Milledgeville, GA) 16 August 1887 - pg. 7 [via Georgia Historic Newspapers ] CITY AND COUNTY. Personal Mention ...Mrs. Annie Tyler, daughter of Mr. Wm. R. Ennis, and wife of Capt. W. R. Tyler of the western part of this county, was very sick for some days during the past week and on Saturday last was reported to be extremely ill. Capt. Tyler who is mail agent on the Macon & Brunswick Railroad has been sent for to come home immediately... I hope he was able to make it in time. Annie died the next day. Union Recorder (Milledgeville, GA) 23 August 1887 - pg. 7 [via Georgia Historic Newspapers ] Death of Mrs. Anni...

Our old citizens are passing away! So said the death notice for John Callaway printed in the Milledgeville, Georgia Union & Recorder . He was born 4 December 1791 and died 5 June 1873 in Milledgeville. Upon death, John was buried in the city's Memory Hill Cemetery. On 25 October 1818 in Baldwin County, GA, John married Margaret "Peggy" Turner. This couple had at least eleven children. Eight of them rest in Memory Hill, and tombstones for six(*) of them are in the image below. - Augustus W. "Gus" Callaway* (3 March 1820 ~ 9 August 1866) - Lucinda A. Callaway Trice* (5 October 1821 ~ 15 March 1889) - John F. "Frank" Callaway - Joshua M. Jasper Callaway - Leonidas Newton Callaway* (19 February 1828 ~ 20 July 1898) - Sarah Elizabeth Callaway Brake (1831 ~ 1907) - Nancy C. Callaway (29 January 1832 ~ 3 February 1901) - Martha M. Callaway Smith* - E. William Callaway* (29 June 1834 ~ 30 November 1873) - Mary Emeline Callaway King Green - ...

John S. Thomas died 9 January 1881 and was buried at Memory Hill Cemetery in Milledgeville, Baldwin County, Georgia. A death notice was published in the Augusta Chronicle , citing the Milledgeville Recorder , just a few days after his demise: Death of Judge J. S. Thomas. Judge John S. Thomas died at his residence, at Midway, Sunday night. He has for years been confined to his house. He was the oldest living male resident of the county at the time of his death. In his early life he was associated with many prominent positions under the State government. We are informed that Judge Thomas was born in May, 1779, and was nearly 102 years of age. He was, in his active life, a prominent citizen and a good one. Doubtless a more extended notice will be given of so remarkable a man. That last line proved prescient. A "more extended" obituary was published in the Milledgeville Union & Recorder on 18 January 1881. John Sherrod Thomas. Col. J. S. Thomas was born in 1779, on Rock...

John W. Hubbard (1869-1898) was buried in Memory Hill Cemetery at Milledgeville, Baldwin County, Georgia. Union Recorder (Milledgeville, Georgia) 10 January 1899 - pg. 2 [via Georgia Historic Newspapers ] IN MEMORIAM. John Hubbard, son of W. H. and Mrs. Fannie Hubbard, was born in Quitman County, Ga., July 28, 1869, and died in Baldwin County, near Milledgeville, Ga., Nov. 4, 1898, aged 29 years, 3 months and 6 days. Brother Hubbard had been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church for thirteen years. He was a quiet and unassuming christian, but, as in other relations of life, was true and unswerving. He was one of that few against whom I never heard a word. His death, like his life, was a quiet and peaceful one. Just a short while before he passed into his happy reward he called for his mother to come to the bedside and told her that he was going to leave her, but that he was happy because he was going to heaven. He then asked her to kiss him good-bye, after pressing the lip...

George A. Rogers (1861-1896) was buried in Myrtle Hill Cemetery at Rome, Floyd County, Georgia. He was a member of the G rand U nited O rder of O dd F ellows, not to be confused with the I ndependent O rder of O dd F ellows. More on the organization after the obituary - Savannah Tribune (Georgia) Saturday, 8 February 1896 - pg. 3 [via GenealogyBank ] Funeral of Capt. Geo A. Rogers. Capt. George A. Rogers, Grand Master of District Grand Lodge No. 18 of Georgia, G U O of O F, died on Friday of last week and his funeral was held at Rome, Ga., on Sunday last. It was one of the largest ever witnessed in that city. Mr. Rogers leaves a wife, a mother and sister to mourn his loss and who have the sympathy of his great host of friends all over the state. Capt. Rogers was a very popular man among his race; he was loved by all. He was captain of the Hill City Guards; Past Master of Kenesaw Lodge, A. F. and A. M., a member of the House Hold of Ruth, the Good Samaritans and the Sons and D...

Maggie May Hiles and husband William Addison Knowles rest in Myrtle Hill Cemetery at Rome, Floyd County, Georgia. An obituary for May follows. Walker County Messenger (LaFayette, Georgia) 20 May 1897 - pg. 1 [via Georgia Historic Newspapers ] Love Could Not Save. Rome, Ga., May 16. -- Mrs. W. A. Knowles, wife of the proprietor of the Rome Tribune, died of consumption, about 7:30 o'clock this morning. She was born in Summerville, Ga., Jan. 30, 1871. She is the second daughter of Capt. Thompson Hiles, a large wholsale [sic] dry goods merchant of Rome, and one of North Georgia's most prominent citizens. Mrs. Knowles graduated from Wesleyan and Shorter colleges, and was married Feb. 5, 1890. She leaves three children. The funeral will occur tomorrow (Monday) afternoon from the First Methodist church at 4 o'clock. She was a devoted wife, a loving mother a model Christian woman. The people of Rome deeply sympathize with Mr. Knowles. William A. Knowles was born at Macon, G...