Southern Graves

The Southern Christian Advocate  is a weekly religious newspaper that began publication out of Charleston, South Carolina in the early summer of 1837. Obituaries published in the paper are characterized as having a strong religious emphasis, often including the manner of death or descriptions of the "death-struggle," and flowery, triumphant, and emotional language. The obituaries are excellent examples of the 19th-century "Good Death" ideal, where a person's behavior and spiritual state on their deathbed were seen as the ultimate evidence of their character and salvation. In the obituary transcribed below, you'll notice a candid admission of a "spiritual lapse." That is a rare find in these usually polished tributes. The following is a transcription of the obituary published in the Southern Christian Advocate  on the death of Thomas D. Walker of Pulaski County, Georgia. Thomas, born 9 May 1808, was a son of George Walker II. Burial was in the Walke...

Born just months after the Civil War ended, Thomas B. Pace Jr. lived through Reconstruction, the Gilded Age, and the upheavals of early 20th-century America. His death in 1931 came at the dawn of the Great Depression, a time when the values inscribed on his gravestone—charity, compassion, faith—were desperately needed. Thomas, and two of his siblings highlighted here, were laid to rest in Cedar Hill Cemetery in Cochran, Bleckley County, Georgia. Thomas Pace Jr.'s Life of Civic Virtue Thomas B. Pace Jr. Son of Thomas B. Pace and Catherine, His Wife Born Sept 30, 1865 Died Sept 18, 1931 Here is to the remains of our brother, Thomas B. Pace, who at all times and places gave his strength to the weak; his substance to the poor, his sympathy to the suffering, and his heart to God. This epitaph, presumably composed by his surviving siblings, reflects a life dedicated to civic virtues, especially in the tumultuous era in which Thomas lived. An obituary ran in the Athens Banner-Herald ...

I wrote about the "noted evangelist" Samuel Porter Jones some years ago in this space. Here are obituaries for three of his six children: Robert, Annie, and Samuel Paul. All are remembered on the family obelisk in Oak Hill Cemetery at Cartersville, Bartow County, Georgia. Robert and Annie were buried there, while Paul was buried in West View Cemetery in Atlanta. Cartersville News  (Georgia) 31 January 1907 ROBERT JONES DEAD. Son of Late Noted Evangelist, Sam Jones, Passes Away. Robert W. Jones, second son of the late noted evangelist, Rev. Sam P. Jones, died at his home, in this city last Saturday morning at 2 o'clock, of pneumonia. Robert professed conversion at the last tabernacle meeting. His father died soon after and the event made such a great impression on him that he decided to do all the good possible for his fellowman and made up his mind to go to preaching. He made feeling talks at the several churches of the city and impressed all with his deep earnestness. H...

And by different , I simply mean not of the Latin (Christian) Cross variety (pictured at right). Currently, there are 78 different emblems of belief available to be etched on a United States government-issued "headstone or marker." The only other graphics permitted in addition to the emblems of belief are "the Civil War Union Shield, the Civil War Confederate Southern Cross of Honor, and the Medal of Honor insignias." Examples of these are at the bottom of this post. According to the National Cemetery Administration - "An emblem of belief for inscription on a Government headstone or marker is an emblem or symbol that represents the sincerely held belief of the decedent that constituted a religion or the functional equivalent of religion and was believed and/or accepted as true by that individual during his or her life. The belief represented by an emblem need not be associated with or endorsed by a group or organization." Here are three examples of emblem...

Thomas Milton Allen was a prominent minister who was born and enslaved in 1833. In 1890 he formed the first association for Black churches, the Kennesaw Baptist Association. Marietta Journal  (Georgia) Thursday, 22 April 1909 NEGRO EX-LEGISLATOR AND MINISTER, Rev. Thomas Allen, Dies at His Farm, Near Marietta. Rev. Thomas Allen, a well-known colored Baptist minister, died at his farm home, near Marietta, on the 11th instant, aged seventy-six years. Before moving to Marietta, he lived in Jasper county, Georgia, and represented that county in the Georgia legislature during the 'reconstruction period,' immediately after the late civil war. He was associated in the legislature with Bishop Turner, colored, when the storm of passion and misrule reigned. Be it said to the credit of the memory of Rev. Thomas Allen, he was a conservative man, of probity and respectability, as his life in Marietta demonstrated. He served the Mt. Zion Baptist church here, as pastor, sixteen years, and the...

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...

Per his gravestone in Forsyth Cemetery at Monroe County, Georgia, Rev. Shaler Granby Hillyer, D.D. was ordained into the Baptist ministry in 1835. He continued to preach until just weeks before his death on 19 February 1900. Obituary and life sketch follows. Macon Telegraph (Georgia) Tuesday, 20 February 1900 - pg. 2 [via GenealogyBank ] DR. S. G. HILLYER IS DEAD WAS THE FATHER OF MR. L. P. HILLYER OF MACON. Was for Sixty-Eight Years a Preacher of the Baptist Church -- Filled a High Place in Georgia in Religious Work. ATLANTA, Feb. 19. -- The death of Rev. Shaler Granby Hillyer, which was not unexpected, occurred today at noon at the residence of his son-in-law, Dr. J. N. Jones, on South Pryor street. Sunday morning he was seized with an attack of paralysis, from which he never recovered. His advanced age, he being 91, made the attack particularly severe upon him. Up to the time time [sic] that he was stricken his mental faculties were as active as ever. Recently he has devo...

If you walk cemeteries in the southern United States often enough, you are bound to come across some seashells along with the expected gravestones. And I don't just mean cemeteries along the coast. You can find the pair in various combinations even hundreds of miles inland. Whether there's a single conch shell on top of a traditional tombstone or hundreds of cockle shells attached to a fully mounded gravesite, you might see the practice as purely for decoration. And you wouldn't be wrong. But could there be more to it? Could those shells perhaps be more significant? The answer is "yes," and here are a couple of prevailing thoughts on the matter. The Watery World of the Dead Elaine Nichols in 1989 was an archeologist, collector, and editor for a museum exhibit entitled, "The Last Miles of the Way: African-American Homegoing Traditions." According to her, for many enslaved Africans and their descendants in America, "The world of the dead wa...

To put it simply (and this may even be an over simplification) a set of hands carved and placed over a tombstone in a Jewish cemetery are called Kohen (or Kohain, or Kohanim ) hands, and represent a priestly blessing. The staff at MyJewishLearning.com explain that a kohen "is a descendant of the sons of Aaron who served as priests in the Temple in Jerusalem." Lorne Rozovsky at Chabad.org delves further: According to the Torah, Jacob had twelve sons. Each son was the founder of one of the twelve tribes of Israel. Each tribe had a separate territory, with the exception of the tribe of Levi. During the Exodus, when the Israelites made the Golden Calf, only the Levites refused to worship it. As a result, they were appointed servants to G‑d. Of the members of this tribe, those who were descended from Aaron, brother of Moses, became the kohanim . Aaron was the first kohen , and also the first high priest. The priestly blessing is a ceremonial prayer recited by the kohanim, wh...

Image taken April 2011 at Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon, Bibb County, Georgia. Joseph Paul Powell, III (1959-2010) Mr. Powell, son of Christine Harkness Powell, was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution and the Sons of Confederate Veterans.  Two lines on his granite ledger marker are in Latin: Requiem Aeternam Dona Eis. Domine: Et Lux Perpetua Luceat Eis. This prayer for the dead translates to English as follows: Grant Them Eternal Rest, O Lord. And Let The Light Shine Upon Them.

Rev. James Hamilton Hall, a Doctor of Divinity, was born 16 April 1836 in Greenville, Meriwether County, Georgia to Alexander and Elizabeth "Betsy" Brown Hall.  James's grandfather was the Irish born Hugh Hall. Alexander was in a position of "financial ease," and thus provided his son James with the "best educational advantages." Yet in a biography of the good reverend, published 1912 in Men of Mark in Georgia , it was written that James led "an aimless and dissipated life." The young man arrived at manhood and became, through a certain philosophic trend of mind, imbedded in the meshes of unbelief.  He even went so far as for a time to lead an aimless and dissipated life.  He had one strong anchor in the shape of the young lady to whom he was engaged, Miss Sarah E. Hall, of Greene county.  She was a woman of strong Christian character, and while she positively refused to marry him during this period of his life, she yet did not let him entire...

[This was originally posted at the Peachy Past blog . I thought it might be of interest to Southern Graves readers.] S carcely a vestige today survives in the way of a memorial to tell of the brief sojourn in this State of the pious Moravians.  But the early annals of Georgia are too fragrant with the memories of this sweet-spirited sect to justify any omission of them in this historical retrospect…The missionary activities of the Moravians among the Georgia Indians were successful in a marked degree; and, with little opposition from the red men of the forest, who learned to trust them with implicit confidence, they penetrated far into the Blue Ridge Mountains and established at Spring Place, in what is now Murray County, a mission which exerted a powerful influence among the native tribes, converting not a few chiefs and warriors, and continuing to flourish down to the final deportation of the Cherokees, in 1838… [Georgia historian, Lucian Lamar Knight, abt 1914] A couple of in...

"For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed…but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect." (I Peter 1:18-19) What's more valuable than silver or gold? A pure and innocent child, without spot or blemish. That's why lambs are in cemeteries.  To represent the innocence and purity of those little lives lost. Proof that Mary had a Little Lamb. (Yep.  I had to go there.) In a cemetery located in southern middle Georgia, the city of Perry, is a tombstone placed for "Little Sissie" – Mary Derrille Culler.  She was a daughter of Dr. & M. S. Culler, who died at the age of just 1 year and 9 months.  The lamb sculpted and placed atop her stone is one of the most lifelike I have ever seen. A tidbit of religious history I found interesting was with Douglas Keister's entry for the Lamb in his book, Stories in Stone: A Field Guide to Cemetery Symbolism and Iconography (2004).  He wro...