Southern Graves

Edith Howard Owen was a daughter of John Grant and Carrie Boykin Owen, born 5 September 1898. Edith would live just eight years. Macon Telegraph (Georgia) Tuesday, 5 February 1907 - pg. 3 [via GenealogyBank ] Died. WAVERLY HALL, Ga., Feb. 4. -- Little Edith Owen, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. G. Owen, died this morning after a brief illness. She was an unusually bright and attractive child, beloved by all. Upon her death on 3 February 1907, Edith was laid to rest in Waverly Hall Cemetery at Harris County, Georgia. A portion of her epitaph reads as follows: Calm on the bosom of thy God, Fair little spirit, rest thee now! E’en while with us thy footstep trod, His seal was on thy brow. These lines are from a "death and burial" hymn written by Felicia Dorothea Browne Hemans about 1823. The second stanza: Dust, to its narrow house beneath! Soul, to its home on high! They that have seen thy look in death No more may fear to die. Years later, a third stanza was ad...

Departed this life, at the residence of her mother, near Waverly Hall, Harris county, Georgia, on the 16th inst., MISS GEORGIA WHITEHEAD. - 22 April 1880 Columbus Daily Enquirer-Sun (Georgia) The broken gravestone for Georgia is at the Waverly Hall Cemetery. She was born 14 August 1849 to J. Thomas and Catharine McGehee Whitehead. Her death on 16 April 1880 was noted in the Harris County Census Mortality Schedule for that year. "Disease or Cause of Death" was listed as Neuralgia of head . From WebMD : Occipital neuralgia is a condition in which the nerves that run from the top of the spinal cord up through the scalp, called the occipital nerves, are inflamed or injured. You might feel pain in the back of your head or the base of your skull...Occipital neuralgia can cause intense pain that feels like a sharp, jabbing, electric shock in the back of the head and neck. Symptoms include aching, burning, and throbbing pain that typically starts at the base of the head and goes...

I've written about the gravestone of Virginia Osborne Crook (d. 1859) in this space before. It's symbolism, really. You can find what grapes, wheat, and a "diving" dove represent here . In this post, I prefer to share a list of names of people enslaved by the Crook family. Maybe this can be of help to someone researching an African American line pre-Emancipation. Columbus Daily Enquirer (Georgia) Friday, 25 November 1859 - pg. 4 [via GenealogyBank ] VALUABLE Negroes at Administrator's Sale. IN compliance with an order of the Court of Ordinary of Harris county, I will sell at public outcry on the first Tuesday in January next, in the town of Hamilton, all the Negroes belonging to the Estate of the late Miss Virginia Crook, to-wit: Mumford a man about 40 years old, a blacksmith; Maria, his wife, about 38 years old, No 1 house woman and cook, washer and ironer, and 3 children, Bulger a boy 5 years old, May a girl 4, and Tom 1 year old. Lard a man 40 year...

Milford Wriarson Howard was born 18 December 1862 in Floyd County, Georgia to Stephen O. and Martha Maddry Howard. He was the eldest of six children born to the couple. The family was quite poor, and Milford was put to work by age 11. Consequently, he had very little formal education. Nonetheless, at the age of 18, Milford began to study law and was admitted to the Georgia bar about a year later. He then moved to Fort Payne, Alabama to start a practice. It was there he met and married Sarah "Sallie" Lankford. Some years later, in 1894 and again in 1896, Milford was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He declined to run again in 1898 and instead turned his sights to more creative projects. By 1920, Milford and family were in Los Angeles, California. He wrote a story titled The Bishop of the Ozarks , and it was made into a silent film in 1923. Milford played a starring role. Sallie Lankford Howard died of cancer in 1925 and was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park ...

A small family plot in Alta Vista Cemetery at Gainesville, Hall County, Georgia holds the remains of a mother and son. Mary Francis Crawford Puckett (1828-1912) and son Lester Durant Puckett (1855-1908) hailed from South Carolina, but found their way to Gainesville about the 1870s. I suspect this was after the death of husband and father Puckett. A set of books tops the Puckett family stone, which sits between smaller headstones for mother and son. A closed book often represents a completed life. This set of books, however, could be a nod to Lester's career path: he taught school and studied law. Obituaries for Mary and Lester follow. Gainesville News (Georgia) 24 July 1912 - pg. 1 [via Georgia Historic Newspapers ] Mrs. Puckett Dead. After an illness of more than a year, Mrs. Mary Francis Puckett died at her home at Sycamore street and Brenau avenue at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. She was eighty-three years of age and had been confined to her bed for a year or more on account of a...

The Hosch family plot at Alta Vista Cemetery in Gainesville, Hall County, Georgia has been profiled in this space before. All because of the sphere . It's a symbol of the never-ending circle of life, eternity, and totality. This post provides obituaries for Walter E. Hosch and his father William, both buried in the lot. Gainesville News (Georgia) 1 May 1918 - pg. 1 [via Georgia Historic Newspapers ] DEATH OF MR. WALTER E. HOSCH Mr. Walter E. Hosch died at St. Luke's hospital in St. Louis last Wednesday at 8.32 p.m. after an illness of nine days. He was operated on April 15th for acute indigestion and never survived, although it was hoped up to Wednesday afternoon that he would rally. He was given every attention, and all that was possible was done to save his life. Mr. Hosch was born at Flowery Branch May 10, 1880, and was therefore thirty-eight years of age. He was married in Jackson, Ga., on October 23, 1907, to Miss Annie Mae Thornton, and she and three little girls...

Per her tombstone in Forsyth Cemetery at Monroe County, Georgia, Amanda was born 22 February 1825. She died at the age of 27 years, 3 months, and 3 days. A striking line inscribed on her stone is, " Life's no pleasure to me. " These same words are found in the Scottish ballad, "Young Aikin." O let him take frae me my head, Or hang me on a tree; For since I've lost my dear lady, Life's no pleasure to me. An obituary follows. It mainly speaks to Amanda's "Christian spirit." Macon Weekly Telegraph (Georgia) Tuesday, 22 June 1852 - pg. 3 [via GenealogyBank ] DIED, On the 25th May, aged about 27 years, Mrs. AMANDA M. BANKS, wife of Joseph R. Banks of Pike, and daughter of A. and N. Davis of Monroe county, Ga. Although she never made an open and public profession of an experimental faith in Christ, such was her Christian spirit, her godly conversation and upright walk, that no one could distinguish her from the most devoted member of t...