Southern Graves

I microblogged this on Twitter  several days ago. Apologies if you've seen it before, but hopefully, there are some elaborations that are new. Mary Annie Gartrell, born in Cobb County, Georgia between 1861 and 1863, was a daughter of lawyer John O. Gartrell and Mary W. Randle. She grew up on a plantation near Kennesaw Mountain. By 1900, three Gartrell daughters were teachers: Mary A., Lucy, and Ina. Annie died in Atlanta, Georgia 9 May 1906 after battling pneumonia for several weeks. An obituary in the Atlanta Constitution  described her as "an earnest church worker in the Presbyterian church." It also noted she was survived by her father, three sisters, and a brother. Burial was in the Marietta City Cemetery (also known as Citizens Cemetery). The towering monument was "erected by [Annie's] devoted sister Lucy A. Gartrell." A portion of the epitaph reads -- She was the pride of her Father and Mother, the idol of her Sisters and Brothers. A dutiful, affection...

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...

[Originally posted at the Rose Hill Cemetery blog .] Eugene C. Jeffers was born about 1833 in Virginia to John E. and Eliza W. Jeffers.  Within a few years of Eugene's birth, the family moved to Georgia.  In 1848, when Eugene was a young adult, his father died at the age of 49. Eugene Jeffers enlisted as a junior 2nd lieutenant in Company I of the 61st Georgia Infantry before October 1861.  He was promoted to 1st lieutenant 2 July 1863.  Muster rolls after that date and through April 1864 listed him as Present .  The 3 November 1864 roll, however, stated he was absent; " in hands of enemy ." Eugene was captured by the Union army as a Prisoner of War near Spottsylvania , Virginia in May of 1864.  He was received at Fort Delaware from Point Lookout, Maryland the next month.  By December of the same year, 1st Lieutenant Eugene Jeffers was listed on a roll of prisoners at Fort Pulaski off the coast of Georgia. That last card from Fold3 's Compiled Servic...

Myrtle's daughter-in-law & grandson. Tenant farming is an agricultural system in which farmers rent land from owners for a share of the crops (crop rent) or cash payment (cash rent).  This essentially replaced the slave system dominant in the South prior to the Civil War.  According to the Southern Tenant Farmers Museum in Tyronza, Arkansas, "Terms of contracts [for tenant farmers] varied, dependent on whether the laborer owned any equipment or purchased his own seed and supplies. Crop rent contracts generally required that one-fourth to one-third of the crop be paid to the landlord. Sharecroppers, at the lowest rung of tenant farming, lacked equipment and capital, which had to be provided by landlords. Thus, they received a smaller percentage of crops, typically 50%." Tenant farming, especially for sharecroppers, was a hard way to make a living.  Constant, back breaking work was required to just get by.  Then the stock market crashed in 1929, and crop pric...

(From November 2008) Two beautiful tombstones at Sardis Cemetery ; Bibb County, Georgia caught my eye recently. I liked them so much I wondered who made them. I'll have to start looking more closely at stones in the future for any signatures. The first gravestone is for Martha A. and B. F. Hudson. Martha A. was born Dec 19, 1849 and died Mar 4, 1919. Benjamin Franklin Hudson was born June 29, 1843 and died Feb 6, 1924: The second stone was identical in design. This one was for two sons of Martha A. and B. F. Hudson. Otis M. Hudson was born July 15, 1882 and died Feb 11, 1916. William Havis Hudson was born Feb 2, 1886 and died Feb 7, 1919: My enjoyment of the stones of course got me doing some research on this family... Benjamin Franklin Hudson was the son of William "Buck" Hudson and Mary B. Moore. This family was in Jones County, Georgia in 1850 and 1860. According to the 1850 Jones County, Georgia census, Benjamin's siblings were as follows: Mat...

[ This was originally posted as yesterday's Tombstone Tuesday post at the Rose Hill Cemetery blog . I thought my dear readers here at Southern Graves might enjoy it as well. If you follow both blogs (thank-you!), I apologize for duplicates. ] When John Ross Juhan was a little boy, his dream was to one day become a fireman. He even attached himself as a mascot to Defiance Fire Company No. 5. Unfortunately, young John never got the chance to obtain his dream. His short life ended on 26 July 1875 at the age of just 8 years. The headstone placed for John Juhan was sculpted by J. Artope of Macon and depicts a fireman's hat, belt, and coat. John B. Ross Son Of W. A. & E. J. Juhan Died July 26, 1875 Age 8 Years, 4 Months & 16 Days Was A Brave Little Fireman Attached To Defiance Fire Co. No. 5  John was the son of W. A. (1827-1893) and Elizabeth Jane (1837-1901) Juhan. The family rests in the Eglantine Square section of Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon, Bibb ...

Lusitania Memorial in Cobh, Ireland by Sofia S. on Flickr Saturday, May 7th, 2011 marks the 96th anniversary of the sinking of the Lusitania by a German u-boat off the coast of Ireland in World War I. I don't know a whole lot about the sinking, so was doing a little reading on the subject yesterday. More than one thousand people lost their lives, and about 130 of those lives lost were American (I see different numbers in different articles, ranging from 124 to 128). I also found a list of "notable" men, women, and children who were passengers on the ill-fated vessel. Some survived, but most did not. Entire families were lost at sea. Many, many bodies were never even recovered. On that list as one of the lives drowned with the Lusitania was that of a noted genealogist, Mr. Lothrop Withington. He was memorialized in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register ( Volume 70 , published 1916) in the section entitled "Report of the Historian: Necro...

Get Low , billed as "a true tall tale" is a great movie I just finished watching about an hour ago. It was released July 2010, and just released on DVD via redbox yesterday. Get Low is about a man who throws a "funeral party" for himself before he dies. Felix Bush, played by Robert Duval, is a hermit who claims to want to hear what others have to say about him. Truthfully, he throws the funeral because he has something to tell. And that's all I'm going to say; you'll have to watch it to learn more! Felix "Bush" Breazeale surrounded by flowers at his own funeral. When I learned this great film is loosely based on a true story, well, I had to search for that story. And I found it. Felix Bushaloo "Bush" Breazeale threw his own funeral party in 1938 Roane County, Tennessee. Here are portions of an article from the 27 June 1938 Times-Picayune in Louisiana (viewed online at GenealogyBank ). Bewhiskered Farmer Scans Heav...

One of the nineteen children of William and Hannah Dowis buried in the family plot at Duluth Church Cemetery in Gwinnett County, Georgia is their son John Victau. He was more commonly known as Victor or Vic Dowis, and he attended the Duluth Baptist Church as a young man. Victor died at the prime of life age of 30 years. In fact, his death came just over a month before his 31st birthday. He left behind a wife and children, including a daughter born just days before his death. I first found there was an interesting story surrounding the death of Victor with a simple search at Ancestry . Several user-submitted family trees mentioned a tale of murder and revenge. Most were telling the story from the "other" side, the side of the Simpson brothers. Both were victims of a traffic stop gone bad, at the hands of Victor Dowis. In 1922 Duluth, Georgia, Victor Dowis was a deputy sheriff. An article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution (viewed online at Fold3 ) dated 21 Febru...

In the world of genealogy, a primary source is one recorded at or very soon after an event by someone with intimate knowledge of the event. Even though you might think the death date on a tombstone would be a primary source, this is not always the case. An obvious example of the contrary would be an ancestor who died in 1796 has a shiny new granite grave marker -- definitely added many, many years after the death and likely not by someone with intimate knowledge of the death. I came across a curious case of weird dates on a tombstone while visiting the Irwinville Cemetery in Irwin County, Georgia. The stone in question is here: Uriah Holden (1838-1920) & wife Elizabeth (1852-1935). Photo © 2010 S. Lincecum. Focusing on the side for Uriah Holden, the tombstone looks like a "period piece" and figures to be trustworthy. Only after I got home and started poking around to find a bit more about Uriah did I find some inconsistencies. In the 1910 Cassville, Bartow,...

I was caught off guard when I first saw William Beall's Confederate States Army tombstone at Evergreen Cemetery in Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Georgia. I do believe that is the first MUS I have ever seen. It took me far longer than it should have to realize that MUS stood for Musician . Another stone for Mr. Beall states he was born 25 December 1849. He must have enlisted in the CSA about the age of 12-15 years. Those boys that were "too young to fight" were often given the rank and position of Musician. That would mean Mr. Beall was likely a fifer, drummer, or bugler. Based on what I've read, we can possibly narrow the role of Mr. Beall to a fifer or drummer. Supposedly the bugle is more associated with cavalry or artillery, while the fife and drum connect more with infantry. Furthermore, the drum was much more common than the fife. A bugler could be found attached to a commander in battle, giving orders to the soldiers since his instrument could be hea...

During a recent visit to Felton Cemetery in Montezuma, Georgia, I paused at the graves of the Elijah Banks Lewis family. E. B. Lewis was a United States Representative from Georgia for several years. His was not the tombstone I noticed, however. I was drawn instead to the graves of his two sons. They dwarfed the surrounding tombstones and contained what I imagine are likenesses of the young men. I was somewhat surprised at what research would uncover about the lives of each of these individuals. From a youthful hero to an accidental shooting. From appendicitis to suicide. The tragedies that befell this family were chronicled in the local newspapers... Macon Weekly Telegraph March 18, 1895 " A YOUTHFUL HERO. Saved a Drowning Boy at the Risk of His Own Life. Montezuma, March 16 -- Yesterday while a crowd of boys were viewing the washout on the Beaver Creek Turnpike Frank Hague, 8 years of age, fell into the water and was carried by the mad current through a sewer pipe ...

Mrs. Nettie C. Hall's (1841-1908) ledger marker is located in Evergreen Cemetery at Fitzgerald, Georgia. At first glance, there might not seem to be a whole lot of information inscribed here. However, there is actually much included in these few lines. Let us start at the top. W. R. C. stands for W omen's R elief C orps. From the W. R. C. website : "The National Woman's Relief Corps, Auxiliary to the Grand Army of the Republic, Inc., is a patriotic organization whose express purpose is to perpetuate the memory of the Grand Army of the Republic, as we are their auxiliary organized at their request on July 25 and 26, 1883 in Denver, Colorado..." The first statement of their mission reads, "To perpetuate the memory of the Grand Army of the Republic and its heroic dead; to assist in every practicable way in preserving, and making available for research, documents and records pertaining to the Grand Army of the Republic and its members..." The Grand Army...