Southern Graves

Mr. H. E. Ellis, 81 years old, formerly of Locust Grove, died at a private sanitarium in Atlanta…   is how the obituary begins.  Henry Ellis, born in Georgia, was a son of T. J. and Nancy (Dunn) Ellis. The obituary (24 December 1925 McDonough Advertiser ) further states: Mr. Ellis was a Confederate veteran, member of Company E, Second Georgia Regiment, Wheeler's Cavalry, who during the days of the war between the states volunteered to do his share for the south in the great struggle that lasted four years. Henry married Martha Rebecca before 1881, and he later became a widower when she died in 1890. When Mr. Ellis died in the late morning of 20 December 1925, cause of death was listed as Uremic intoxication .  This is generally a by-product of kidney failure, when waste enters the bloodstream. I found something interesting on Henry's death certificate.  Both the informant and the physician was noted as H. C. Ellis of McDonough, Georgia.  The obituary confirmed m...

While the headline might seem familiar, this incident actually happened more than 175 years ago. -- Thomas Ellis was born about 1798.  His "untimely exit" came way too soon, about 34 years later, and under some interesting circumstances. His obituary ran in the Georgia Telegraph , Macon, on Wednesday, 10 October 1832: Awful Catastrophe! -- Early on Wednesday morning last, in a rencontre with Henry Byrom, Mr. Thomas M. Ellis , long known as one of the most industrious and enterprising men in Macon, received a pistol ball in his abdomen, of which he died in about three hours. This afflicting occurrence has thrown a gloom over the whole town. Mr. Ellis was greatly respected for his moral virtues, his uprightness of conduct, his enterprising genius, and his untiring industry. One of the first settlers of Macon, the town owes much to him for its rapid growth and unprecedented prosperity. What Girard died for Philadelphia, Mr. Ellis was doing for Macon. He pried into every ...