Georgia's landmarks, memorials and legends, Volume II, Part 23

Author: Knight, Lucian Lamar, 1868-1933
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Atlanta, Ga. : Byrd Printing Co.
Number of Pages: 1274


USA > Georgia > Georgia's landmarks, memorials and legends, Volume II > Part 23


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


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"The red old hills of Georgia I never can forget ; Amid life's joys and sorrows, My heart is on them yet ; And when my course is ended- No more to toil or rove, May I be held in their dear clasp Close, close to them I love! "


Only a few feet removed from the Jackson lot is the grave of another illustrious diplomat and soldier; BRIG- ADIER-GENERAL ALEXANDER R. LAWTON. He was for years a partner of General Jackson in the practice of law. His first introduction to fame occurred on the eve of the Civil War, when in command of an independent regi- ment of Savannah troops he seized Fort Pulaski, at the mouth of the Savannah River. At this time Georgia had not seceded from the Union. It was, technically, therefore, an act of treason against the United States Government; but from the Southern point of view it was an act of patriotism, justified by the logic of events. He was a graduate of West Point; and during the Civil War held the important office of quartermaster-general, after commanding a brigade in the field. Under Mr. Cleve- land's first administration he became United States Min-


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BONAVENTURE


ister to Austria, an appointment held prior to the .war by his old law partner. There were some little compli- cations growing out of the part played by General Law- ton in the seizure of Fort Pulaski; but his political dis- abilities were finally removed. He was a strong minor- ity candidate for the United States Senate, in 1880, against former Governor Joseph E. Brown, and several years later the chosen orator at the laying of the corner- stone of the new State Capitol, in Atlanta. His beloved wife sleeps beside him in Bonaventure. The graves are united by a handsome arch of marble, sculptured in Flor- ence, Italy, by the famous Romanelli.


On the right column is this inscription :


ALEXANDER ROBERT LAWTON. Born November 5, 1818. Died July 2, 1896.


On the left column :


SARAH ALEXANDER LAWTON. Born Jan. 26, 1826. Died Nov., 1, 1897.


On guard, at the entrance to the portal, stands the figure of an angel, and just beneath are these words:


"Heirs together of the grace of life."


Two other distinguished Confederate brigadier-gen- erals, both of them graduates of West Point, repose be- neath handsome monuments in Bonaventure-HUGH W. MERCER and ROBERT H. ANDERSON. The first was a son of the gallant Revolutionary soldier, GENERAL HUGH MERCER, who fell at the battle of Princeton. He was an officer under Washington, who accompanied the latter in his famous crossing of the Delaware; and the heroic death of this sturdy patriot is today memorialized by the name of the county in which New Jersey's capitol is


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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS


located. GENERAL ANDERSON was for years Savannah's chief of police. In the same area of ground sleeps his son, CAPTAIN ROBERT H. ANDERSON, JR., who died at Ma- nila, in the Philippine Islands, in 1901.


BISHOP JOHN W. BECKWITH, one of the foremost pul- pit orators of his day, rests in Bonaventure. His grave marked by a handsome stone. Succeeding the lamented BISHOP STEPHEN ELLIOTT, in the oversight of the Episco- pal diocese of Georgia, he brought to his high office not only a gift of eloquence, seldom if ever excelled, but a genius for organization of the very highest order. He assumed the episcopal robes in 1868, and wore them with honor until his death, in 1890.


Marked by one of the loftiest granite shafts in the cemetery is the grave of RUFUS E. LESTER, for sixteen years a representative of the Savannah district in Con- gress. His tragic death, the result of a fall which oc- curred in Washington, D. C., while searching for his little grandchild, in the attic of his hotel, plunged the en- tire State of Georgia in grief. He was a brilliant law- yer, a stainless gentleman, and a faithful public servant. On a handsome tablet of bronze, near the base of the monument, is inscribed this epitaph :


RUFUS EZEKIEL LESTER. Born in Burke Co., Ga., Dec. 12, 1837. Died in Washington, D. C., June 16, 1906. A gallant Confederate soldier. State Senator, 1870-1879. Three years President of the Senate. Mayor of Savan- nah, 1883-1889. Member of Congress, 1890-1906. True to every trust.


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LAUREL GROVE


Included among the other Georgians of note who sleep in Bonaventure may be mentioned: BRIGADIER-GENERAL W. W. GORDON, a distinguished veteran of both the Civil and the Spanish-American wars, a legislator and a man of affairs; JOHN H. ESTELL, a gallant Confederate sol- dier, for thirty years president of the Union Society and for forty years proprietor of the Savannah Morning News; HUGH M. COMER, SR., long president of the Cen- tral of Georgia, a noted financier and a public spirited citizen; DR. RICHARD D. ARNOLD and DR. WILLIAM C. DANIELL, both eminent physicians, the former one of the organizers of the Georgia Historical Society, the latter one of the mayors of Savannah; JUDGE WALTER S. CHIS- HOLM, DR. JOHN CUMMING, THOMAS ARKWRIGHT, a native of Preston, Eng .; REV. EDWARD NEUFVILLE, D. D., an emi- nent Episcopal divine; WILLIAM GASTON, P. M. KOLLOCK, GEORGE J. KOLLOCK, THOMAS H. HARDEN, BRANTLEY A. DENMARK, and DR. R. J. NUNN, besides a number of others whose memories are still tenderly cherished by a grateful Commonwealth.


Laurel Grove, Savannah


Opened in 1852, Laurel Grove is still the chief burial- ground of the City of Savannah. It lacks the charm of natural beauty which belongs to Bonaventure, but in the green expanse of native woods there is much to please the eye, while a multitude of handsome vaults and monu- ments give it a wealth of artistic attractions. The cemetery is situated on the southwestern outskirts of the city, where it occupies an extensive area of land. It is famed as the last resting place of several thousand Con- federate soldiers who perished in the operations around Savannah. Some of the most illustrious of Georgia's honored dead also sleep here, including a number for whom counties have been named. Underneath a hand-


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some block of granite, some four feet in height, com- pletely covering the grave, sleeps the dust of the gallant Bartow. One of the most zealous advocates of secession, he became one of the first martyrs of the Civil War. As a member of the first Confederate Congress he was instru- mental in selecting gray uniforms for the Confederate soldier-a color which was destined to become immor- tally associated with heroic valor. He also participated in the dramatic seizure of Fort Pulaski. His company- the Oglethorpe Light Infantry-left Savannah for the front on May 21, 1861; and he was subsequently made Colonel of the Eighth Georgia Regiment to which he was attached. There arose between Governor Brown and Colonel Bartow, an issue concerning the propriety of the latter's taking to Virginia the guns which belonged to Georgia and which were needed for the State's defense; but the historic reply of the gallant officer was: "I go to illustrate Georgia." Two months later, he fell on the field of Manassas. Death overtook him while making a victorious charge at the head of a brigade. In honor of the brave hero, Georgia, by an act of the Legislature, changed the name of Cass County in this State to Bartow. Inscribed on his monument, in Laurel Grove, is the fol- lowing record :


FRANCIS S. BARTOW. Colonel 8th. Regiment, Georgia Volunteers, Confederate States Army. Born Savannah, Ga., September 6th., 1818. Fell at Manassas, July 21st, 1861.


On the right side : .


"I go to illustrate Georgia."


On the left side :


" They have killed me, boys, but I never gave up."


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LAUREL GROVE


His father, DR. THEODOSIUS BARTOW, who died in 1857, at the age of 83, occupies a grave in the same lot. He was a noted physician of Savannah in ante-bellum days but a gentleman of Northern birth.


Only a short distance removed is the grave of an illus- trious Georgian in whose office Colonel Bartow began the study of law: JOHN MACPHERSON BERRIEN. The latter's prestige as an orator, in the days when Webster and Calhoun and Clay were still upon the stage, caused him to be styled "the American Cicero." He became Attorney-General of the United States in the cabinet of President Jackson; and twice represented Georgia in the American Senate. The monument over the grave of Mr. Berrien is an octagonal shaft of beautifully sculptured white marble, resting upon an ivy-covered mound of rock. It is one of the most artistic memorials in Laurel Grove. The inscription on the monument reads as fol- lows :


The grave of JOHN MACPHERSON BERRIEN, eldest son of Major John Berrien, and of Margaret MacPherson. Born at Rockingham, near Princeton, N. J., Aug. 23, 1781. Died at Savannah, Ga., Jan. 1, 1856.


On the right side of the column we read :


This monument is placed over his ashes by his be- reaved and loving children in memory of a life laborious in the discharge of every duty, adorned with every Chris- tian grace, illustrious in the public service, but more glorious in the milder light of those gentle virtues which 'made his home beautiful and holy and beamed upon all it incircled a love over which the grave can achieve no victory.


On the other sides of the monument there are Biblical quotations.


Judge Berrien's mother was Margaret MacPherson. The Senator was named for her brother John who fell at


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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS


Quebec, where he was an aide-de-camp on Gen. Mont- gomery's staff. Mrs. Berrien was never vigorous in health. She died early in life at Baisden's Bluff, then a summer resort, in McIntosh County, where she was buried on the old Bailey plantation, afterwards the property of Dr. Troup. Her grave is near the old Oglethorpe road. some 12 miles from Darien.


The Senator's father is buried in Colonial Park. There, too, in the old cemetery, repose the ashes of his wife, with two of her children. The reason Judge Berrien himself is not there is due to the fact that at the time of his death the old cemetery was closed for burial purposes. Berrien County bears the name of this great orator and states- man. Judge Berrien's only rival for the palm of oratory during his day in Georgia was the gifted JOHN FORSYTH, who lived for a time in Savannah but afterwards removed to Augusta. The latter died while Secretary of State, in the cabinet of President Van Buren, and was buried in the Congressional cemetery, in Washington, D. C.


Within sight of the Berrien monument is the tomb of WILLIAM WASHINGTON GORDON, one of the great pioneer railway builders of Georgia, in honor of whom Gordon County in this State was named. There also stands on Bull Street, in the City of Savannah, a superb memorial shaft erected to him by the Central Railway of Georgia, of which he was the first president. The modest inscrip- tion on the unpretentious stone which marks his grave in Laurel Grove reads as follows :


Sacred to the memory of WILLIAM WASHINGTON GORDON, son of Ambrose and Elizabeth Gordon, who was born near Augusta, June 4, 1796, and died at Sa- vannah on March 20, 1842. He lived among his fellow- men distinguished for lofty independence of character, for honesty and firmness of purpose, and for patriotie 'public services. He died in the bosom of his family, a Christian in humble hope of a glorious immortality through the merits of his Saviour.


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LAUREL GROVE


JUDGE ROBERT M. CHARLTON, a distinguished citizen of Savannah who was several times mayor of his native town, a jurist of note, a poet of rare gifts, and a states- man who served Georgia in the United States Senate, occupies a grave in Laurel Grove; and on the handsome marble stone is inscribed the following tribute from his beloved wife:


My husband, ROBERT M. CHARLTON. Born Jan- uary, 19th, 1807. Died January 18th., 1854.


"Green be the turf above thee, Friend of our happier days ; None knew thee but to love thee, None named thee but to praise."


Charlton County, in the extreme southeastern corner of this State, was named in honor of Judge Charlton. His noted father, THOMAS U. P. CHARLTON, who wrote "The Life of Major-General James Jackson," and who was also both a former mayor of Savannah and a famous jurist, is buried in the same area of ground. The latter rested for many years in the old Colonial burial-ground of Savannah; but in the early fifties, when the historic old grave-yard was closed by the local authorities, his remains, together with those of other members of the Charlton family, were removed to Laurel Grove where they have since reposed.


In the immediate neighborhood of the Bartow lot sleeps another distinguished hero of the War between the States -MAJOR-GENERAL LAFAYETTE McLAWS. On the handsome block of granite which covers the old soldier's last bivouac is chiselled a sword. The monument erected by the Confederate survivers and citizens of Savannah bears the following inscription :


LAFAYETTE McLAWS, Major-General Confederate States Army. Born, Augusta, Ga., January 15, 1821. Died, Savannah, Ga., July 24, 1897.


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On the left side of the monument is inscribed this tribute from his comrades :


"He knew where to lead us and he always brought us ont. ''


On the right side is the following sentiment quoted from the old soldier himself :


" I fought not for what I thought .to be right but for principles that were right."


General McLaws was a superb strategist-though he never held an independent command. He re-enforced Jackson's corps at Harper's Ferry in time to aid in the capture of 12,000 prisoners of war; while at Gettysburg his single division put to rout the Federal corps under General Sickles, in the second day's fight. Longstreet filed complaint against him for desisting from an attack which the former ordered upon Fort Sanders, but his conduct was justified by the court martial. In 1864 he was placed in command of the District of Georgia. On the issues of Reconstruction, after the war, he gave his support to the dominant party in politics and was appointed collector of customs at Savannah, after which he held for a time the office of postmaster.


MAJOR-GENERAL JEREMY FRANCIS GILMER, of North Carolina, a distinguished Confederate officer who com- manded a division during the Civil War and who located in Savannah some time after the close of hostilities, occupies a grave in Laurel Grove, marked by a handsome block of stone. He was a graduate of West Point, and served in the old army on the western frontier. At the time of his death, which occurred Dec. 1, 1883, he was


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LAUREL GROVE


engaged in railway enterprises in Georgia, with head- quarters in Savannah.


Close by sleep two famous brothers, JOSEPH CLAY HABERSHAM and WILLIAM NEYLE HABERSHAM, who fell within a few feet of each other while defending Atlanta in the celebrated battle of July 22, 1864. The former was a lieutenant, aged 23. The latter was a private, aged 20. Between the graves in which they lie there stands a beau- tiful shaft of white marble, on the face of which this in- scription is chiselled :


" In their death they were not divided."'


Underneath a handsome shaft of granite, to the left of the main driveway, repose the mortal ashes of the great editor and humorist, WILLIAM T. THOMPSON. He founded the Savannah Morning News, a paper of which he continued to be the editor for more than three decades; but he is best known to fame as the author of the renowned "Major Jones's Courtship," a classic of ante- bellum wit and humor. The inscription on the tomb of Colonel Thompson reads as follows:


To the memory of WILLIAM TAPPAN THOMPSON, Author and Journalist. Born August 31, 1812. Died March 24, 1882. Dedicated by the Savannah Morning News to its Founder and during thirty-two years its faithful and able Editor; and by the Georgia Press Association to a distinguished and lamented member.


Marked by a neat shaft of marble is the grave of . JOSEPH W. JACKSON, a former member of Congress and a lawyer of note. He was the youngest son of the cele- brated old chief executive who called down fire from


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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS


heaven to extinguish the iniquitous records of the Yazoo fraud. The inscription on the monument is as follows :


JOSEPH W. JACKSON, youngest son of Gov. James Jackson, was born on 6th. of Dec., 1796, at Cedar Hill near Savannah, and departed this life on 29th. of Sept., 1854, a victim of the yellow fever.


GENERAL HENRY R. JACKSON, the noted soldier, diplo- mat, statesman, and poet, who wrote "The Red Old Hills of Georgia," a nephew of the old Governor, sleeps in Bonaventure, but his first wife CORNELIA AUGUSTA DAVEN- PORT lies entombed in the Jackson lot in Laurel Grove. This lot adjoins the one on which Joseph W. Jackson is buried. Here, too, rests CORNELIA JACKSON BARROW, the second wife of UNITED STATES SENATOR POPE BARROW. His daughter FLORENCE BARCLAY BARROW also sleeps here, but the Senator himself is interred in the burial-ground of his ancestors, near the town of Lexington.


Longstreet's chief of staff, BRIGADIER-GENERAL G. MOXLEY SORREL, occupies one of the handsomest vaults in Laurel Grove. On the outer wall of the crypt which con- tains his mortal ashes may be read the following inscrip- tion :


GEN. G. MOXLEY SORREL, U. S. Army of America. Chief of Staff, Longstreet Corps, Army of N. V. Later Brigade Commander in same. Feb. 23, 1838. Aug 10, 1901. "Et Virtute et Valore. "'


Another gallant Confederate officer who sleeps in Laurel Grove is BRIGADIER-GENERAL GEORGE P. HARRISON, SR., whose son, GEORGE P. HARRISON, JR., held the same rank.


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LAUREL GROVE


Under a handsome monument, near the Confederate reserve, rest the mortal ashes of JULIAN HARTRIDGE, one of the most brilliant men of his day in public life. He served with distinction in the Confederate Congress, after a brief experience in the field with the Chatham Artillery; and subsequent to the war was twice elected to a seat in the National House of Representatives. While serving his second term in the latter high forum an illness, from which no one anticipated serious results, took an unex- pected turn for the worse, ending in his death. As an advocate before a jury he possessed few equals. Though he held public office, his ambitions were not along political lines ; and he even declined at one time a seat on the Supreme Bench of Georgia. Inscribed on his tomb is the following epitaph :


JULIAN HARTRIDGE, member of the 44th. and 45th. Congress of the United States. Born Sept. 9th., 1829. Died, Washington, D. C., Jan. 8, 1879. Even when life promised most how many hopes have perished.


BISHOP STEPHEN ELLIOTT, the first Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia, and the great leader and organizer of the church in this State, where he labored for more than twenty-five years, is included among the illustrious dead of Laurel Grove. He was a native of South Carolina and a son of the distinguished naturalist who bore the same name. Bishop Elliott was one of the founders of the University of the South, at Sewanee, Tenn. He possessed a genius for organization equalled by few and surpassed by none. His labors were Hercu- lean ; and it was probably due to burdens which overtaxed his strength that he died at the age of sixty-one. His gifted son, ROBERT W. B. ELLIOTT, became the first Bishop of Southwestern Texas. His daughter, Sarah Barnwell Elliott, is a brilliant writer. In almost every generation


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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS


this noted family has given birth to distinguished men. Bishop Elliott left a number of volumes to attest his varied intellectual activities ; but the Episcopal Church of Georgia is his noblest monument. The Bishop's grave is somewhat uniquely. marked. Upon a brick foundation rests a heavy slab of gray granite, which in turn supports a superstructure of red granite, rectangular in shape to a height of nine inches, when it assumes something of a Gothic curve, culminating at the roof in a Gothic cross, of slender proportions, which extends the entire length of the tomb. At the head, is chiseled the Bishop's mitre. On the sides there are other emblems of the Church of England. The inscription is in Latin, lettered in old English characters. Consequently it is difficult to read. Here is the inscription :


STEPHANUS ELLIOTT. d. g. epis. Georgianus primus. Ob. in pace Jehn S. Thomas festo MDCCCLXVI. Aet. LXI.


1


COLONEL CHARLES A. LAMAR, one of the owners of the famous slave-ship "Wanderer" and a gallant Confeder- ate soldier, who fell near Columbus, Ga., in one of the last battles of the war, sleeps under a handsome monument of marble, designed in imitation of a broken column, draped at the top. The inscription on the monument reads :


CHARLES A. L. LAMAR. Born in Savannah, April 1, 1824. Killed during the fight at Columbus, April 16, 1865.


At his side reposes his beloved wife, CAROLINE AGNES, who survived him until 1902. In the same lot, which is shaped in the form of a triangle, sleeps his gifted son- in-law, one of the most magnetic orators known to the


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LAUREL GROVE


public life of Georgia since the war; at one time also a strong minority candidate for the Senate of the United States. The inscription on the neat granite headstone reads as follows :


FLEMING GRANTLAND DU BIGNON. July 25, 1853. Nov. 19, 1909.


In the close neighborhood of the Lamar lot sleeps JOHN MILLEN, a distinguished member of the Savannah bar, for whom the town of Millen in this State was named. He was elected to a seat in the United States Congress, but death overtook him before he could assume the honors for which he was so well fitted by reason of his great talents. The grave is marked by a most substantial shaft of marble, on which the following inscription is chiseled :


Sacred to the memory of JOHN MILLEN, son of George and Margaret Millen. Representative-Elect from Georgia in the Congress of the United States, who died in Savannah, October 15, 1843, in the 39th. year of his 'age.


On the left side of the tomb appears this epitaph :


Possessing a mind of no ordinary character and a heart warm and enthusiastic, COL. MILLEN filled the stations of son, brother, and friend surpassed by none, thereby ensuring to his mental worth and noble qualifications a remembrance that will ever live and be cherished in the hearts of those who mourn his loss. "Oh tyrant, who shall snap thy bow or stay thy arrow when they have been leveled at the heart of thy victim ?"


Over the Gettysburg dead, in the Confederate area, stands a monument which attracts much attention from visitors. It is a beautifully carved statue of Silence


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GEORGIA'S LANDMARKS, MEMORIALS AND LEGENDS


mounted upon a handsome pedestal of marble. The inscription upon the west side reads :


"To the Confederate Dead. Here rest till Roll Call the M'en of Gettysburg."


On the other sides of the pedestal appropriate verses are inscribed. The luxuriant ivy which clusters at the base was brought from Gettysburg with the dead who sleep around the momment.


To mention by name only some of the many other dis- tinguished Georgians who sleep in Laurel Grove, the list includes : JUDGE JAMES M. WAYNE, for thirty years an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and for three successive terms a member of Con- gress ; JUDGE EDWARD J. HARDEN, a noted jurist, who wrote the "Life of George M. Troup;" GEORGE W. OWENS, a former member of the National House of Representa- tives; MAJOR WM. P. BOWEN, to whose initiative was due in large measure the monument in Savannah to Count Pulaski; JUDGE WM. B. FLEMING and JUDGE JOHN C. NICHOLLS, both noted jurists and former members of Con- gress ; WILLIAM LAW, one of the most celebrated lawyers of the late ante-bellum period; JEREMIAH L. CUYLER and RICHARD R. CUYLER, both noted railway pioneers and eminent members of the bar; THOMAS PURSE, the first superintendent of the Central of Georgia; JUDGE. ALEX- ANDER PRATT ADAMS, a brilliant young jurist, whose early death at the age of forty-one, while in the prime of his intellectual powers, was a bereavement to the State; GEORGE W. STILES, ISRAEL K. TEFFT, DR. JAMES P. SCRE- VEN ; DR. JOACHIM R. SAUSSY, a distinguished victim of the yellow fever in the epidemic of 1854; DR. EDWARD H. MYERS, a noted Methodist divine, who perished in the same fatal scourge; JOHN J. KELLY, GEORGE B. CUMMING,


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CATHOLIC CEMETERY-OLD JEWISH BURIAL GROUND


MAJOR JOHN FOLEY, DR. WILLIAM R. WARING, DR. JAMES J. WARING, DR. COSMO P. RICHARDSON, CHARLES N. WEST, WILLIAM H. BULLOCH, WILLIAM B. BULLOCH, DR. WILLIAM G. BULLOCH, GEORGE W. STILES, REV. HENRY KOLLOCK, D. D., JOHN Y. NOEL, GEORGE ANDERSON, EDWARD G. ANDER- SON, JOHN BOSTON, DR. JOHN CLAY HABERSHAM, and a host of others whose names are still fragrant around the hearthstones of Savannah and in the hearts of Georgians.


Catholic Cemetery, Savannah


Situated on the road to Thunderbolt, two miles from the city, this handsome necropolis was established in 1853 by the Savannah Catholics. Here lies entombed the first Bishop of the Diocese of Savannah-the Right Rev- erend F. X. Gartland, whose memory is today revered by thousands, irrespective of creed. He died a victim of the yellow fever in the great plague of 1854. Bishop Barron, who held a foreign jurisdiction, is likewise buried here. He, too, perished in the fearful scourge of the same year. Bishop Barry, who, broken in health by his ard- uous labors, went abroad to recoup his strength, but died in the city of Paris, where he was the special guest of the Archbishop, is also buried here. He was first laid to rest in Pere-la-Chaise; but, at the request of his parish- ioners, he was brought back to Savannah for final inter- ment by the side of his revered predecessor. Here also sleeps the beloved Bishop Becker.




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