Southern Graves

[Originally posted at the Rose Hill Cemetery blog .] Aurelia L. was born 19 January 1825 in Georgia.  She was one of at least seven daughters born to Henry Graybill Lamar and Mary Ann Davis, and sister to Mary Gazaline Lamar Ellis . When Aurelia was 20 years old, she married James A. Ralston.  The marriage was solemnized 5 March 1845 by Seneca Bragg at Christ Church in Macon, Bibb County, Georgia.  I think James was a son of David (d. 1842) and Anna V. (d. 1836) Ralston. The couple had at least five children:  Henry (b. abt 1846), James A. (b. abt 1848), Anna, George, and Davis (b. abt 1850).  Anna and George were twins, born 3 August 1849.  According to the inscription on a tombstone in Rose Hill Cemetery, George died April 1850, and Anna died September 1851.  The date (month, at least) might be incorrect for George, since both he and Anna are listed in the Ralston household for the 1850 Bibb County, Georgia Federal census taken August 12th of that ...

Mary E. (McClure) Mull rests at McClure Cemetery in Fannin County, Georgia.  This cemetery is also known as Friendship Cemetery, per applicable death certificates I have viewed. Mary was born in Georgia to Nancy C. Davenport and Cicero L. McClure.  Her parents also rest at McClure Cemetery. About the year 1921, Mary became a farmer's wife when she married Hubert Mull (b. abt 1892).  The couple had at least two daughters.  According to the 1940 Fannin County, Georgia Federal census , the family was residing on Dry Branch Road, not far from where the cemetery is today. Here is a slideshow of images from McClure Cemetery and the surrounding area.

This poem, which is a comforting epitaph, is inscribed on the granite tombstone placed for Joann T. Parks about 1992.  The author of the sonnet was Mary Elizabeth (Clark) Frye, and she wrote it in 1932. Do not stand at my grave and weep I am not there, I do not sleep I am a thousand winds that blow I am the diamond glints on snow I am the sunlight on ripened grain I am the gentle autumn's rain When you waken in the morning's hush I am the swift uplifting rush Of quiet birds in circled flight I am the soft star that shines at night Do not stand at my grave and cry I am not there; I did not die. Joann rests at Chastain Memorial Cemetery in Blue Ridge, Fannin County, Georgia.

The three Habersham brothers – James, Joseph, and John – rest beside their father, the elder James Habersham, in Colonial Park Cemetery at Savannah, Georgia .  Though their father supported the Crown, the brothers were devoted patriots in the American Revolution.  And afterwards, prominent in public positions for the United States and the state of Georgia. Joseph Habersham The left panel on the vault front is devoted to second son, Joseph Habersham (1751-1815), and his wife, Isabella Rae. Accomplishments of Joseph listed here are the following: Lieutenant Colonel in the Continental Army, Postmaster General under George Washington, Member of the Continental Congress, Speaker of the General Assembly, and Member of the Society Cincinnati in Georgia. Joseph was also Mayor of Savannah, 1792-1793. Furthermore, three years after his death, a county in Georgia was named for Mr. Habersham. Here is an obituary from the Savannah Advertiser by way of the 5 December 1815 edition of Virgi...

[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...

A ll Rome was there to meet her.  With the earliest glimmer of dawn the little city of the hills began to stir – but softly, like the tread of gentle snowflakes.  Long before the sun was up, every road was thronged with travelers from the neighboring farms and hamlets, while every train brought its burden of souls from the remoter towns and cities.  It was a day to be remembered by the youngest child when an aged man or woman, a day whose significance made it a rare forget-me-not in the year's calendar of events.  But, instead of the emblems of rejoicing, the symbols of grief were displayed on every hand…No sound of hammer or anvil smote the air.  Shops were closed…It was Mrs. Wilson's home-coming; and this vast assemblage of friends was here to welcome in silence a returning daughter of Georgia, one whose name was upon a nation's lips:  the beloved First Lady of the Land. [Georgia historian, Lucian Lamar Knight, 1914] Mrs. Wilson was coming home – and she...

As mentioned in my previous post about the Cotting-Burke mausoleum at Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta, Georgia, there once was a temporary resident housed there.  That person was none other than former congressman, former vice-president of the Confederacy, and Georgia governor, Alexander Hamilton Stephens. Alexander H. Stephens was born 11 February 1812 in Crawfordville, Georgia.  He is often described as small and sickly.  In fact, in 1843, at the age of 31, he only weighed 96 pounds.  But he had a boldness about him that could not be denied.  Famed Georgia historian, Lucian Lamar Knight, noted Mr. Stephens as being " game to the core ." I think it's safe to say Alexander Stephens was a much beloved citizen of Georgia.  Upon his death in March of 1883, it is estimated that approximately 25,000 people lined the roadways and followed his funeral procession to Oakland Cemetery. Per Lucian Lamar Knight in Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials, and Legends : The funeral ...

The Cotting – Burke sarcophagus type mausoleum stands in Oakland Cemetery at Atlanta, Georgia.  It contains a couple of prominent individuals, and also temporarily housed another.  Today, I'd like to share the obituaries for David and Frances Cotting.  He was Secretary of State for Georgia, and she was a "leading social light." They both died of pneumonia, though 29 years apart. Savannah Daily Advertiser (Georgia) Friday, 9 October 1874 -- [via GenealogyBank ] Death of David G. Cotting. Mr. David G. Cotting, who has been suffering for sometime [sic] from a complication of disorders, died on Sunday night.  The immediate cause of his death was pneumonia. Judge Cotting was born in Delham, Massachusetts, on the 28th of September, 1812, and was, therefore, over sixty years of age. After graduating he devoted four years to the study of Greek and Latin.  He moved to Washington, Wilkes county, in this State, where, for a short while, he engaged in school teaching....

I didn't believe it at first.  But then I found a newspaper article that confirmed it.  John Walz, well known German born sculptor of Savannah, Georgia, was commissioned to carve a statue of Bertha Wolff – and that statue was delivered to and placed in Rose Hill Cemetery at Macon, Georgia. I am deeply in love with Macon's Rose Hill Cemetery .  It's one of the few things I was sad to leave when we moved to the mountains.  But it doesn't get oohed and ahhed over quite as much as Savannah's Bonaventure Cemetery.  Over 100 pieces of mortuary art found in Bonaventure are attributed to John Walz.  To know a piece of art by a sculptor who helped give Bonaventure some of those oohs and ahhs was located in Rose Hill, tickled me pink. Think you don't know John Walz? Well, maybe you do.  One statue he carved out of marble is pretty well known.  If you visit Bonaventure, you'll find directions pointing to it, and you will likely find a few people already ther...

"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...

I haven't written about symbols in the cemetery in quite some time.  Today, I'm highlighting the anchor . In addition to the "heavy object attached to a rope or chain used to moor a vessel to the sea bottom" definition for the word anchor, a dictionary offers this: … a person or thing that can be relied on for support, stability, or security; mainstay. … to keep hold or be firmly fixed. Unless there is an obvious naval or nautical connection, an anchor in the cemetery generally represents hope .  This symbol can be traced back to the Bible  and Hebrews 6:19 -- Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil. Matthew Henry provided the following commentary on the anchor as a symbol of hope, Biblically speaking: What use the people of God should make of their hope and comfort, that most refreshing and comfortable hope of eternal blessedness that God has given them…We are in this world as a ship at sea...

Resting in Locust Grove City Cemetery at Henry County, Georgia is Rachael and her husband W. W. Williams.  The epitaph inscribed for Rachael is quite poignant -- Rachael Williams Born Dec 19, 1823 Died Apr 20, 1909 At last we learned submission to our lot, And though we less deplored her, ne'er forgot. The last lines of Rachael's epitaph, though not word-for-word, are from a poem by William Cowper (1731-1800) titled My Mother's Picture : MY mother, when I learned that thou wast dead, Say, wast thou conscious of the tears I shed? Hovered thy spirit o’er thy sorrowing son,— Wretch even then, life’s journey just begun? I heard the bell tolled on thy burial-day; I saw the hearse that bore thee slow away; And, turning from my nursery-window, drew A long, long sigh, and wept a last adieu! But was it such? It was. Where thou art gone, Adieus and farewells are a sound unknown; May I but meet thee on that peaceful shore, The parting word shall pass my lips no more. Th...

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...

Mollie E. was born 7 June 1854 in Henry County, Georgia to Mr. and Mrs. Shirley Green. She married Dave Thomas Copeland about 1873.  Mollie died the evening of 1 December 1929 in Locust Grove, Henry County.  Despite her age, death was unexpected.  Per her death certificate, Mollie Died [of Paralysis] very sudden without medical attention in presence of witness. She was laid to rest at Locust Grove City Cemetery.  At the time, this cemetery belonged to the Baptist Church. Husband Dave was laid beside Mollie almost seven years later.  This cemetery also holds Mollie's daughter Gertrude (Copeland) Parr, who died 1939 at the age of 64.