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project for my spring library class
This spring I did a project about Athens History for my Humanities Resources library school class. I thought others might find it interesting. Below the cut is part 1, about historic cemeteries in Athens.
Historic Athens Cemeteries
Patricia Irvin Cooper and Glen McAninch, Map and Historical Sketch of the Old Athens Cemetery (Jackson Street, Athens, Georgia). (Old Athens Cemetery Foundation, Athens, GA, 1983).
Charlotte Thomas Marshall, Oconee Hill Cemetery; Tombstone Inscriptions for That Part of Cemetery West of Oconee River and Index to Record of Interments (Athens Historical Society, Athens, GA, 1971). See also http://www.oconeehillcemetery.com/
Albert L. Hester, Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery: An African-American Historic Site (Green Berry Press, Athens, GA, 2004). See also http://www.eadcinc.com/gospel_p_cem/
Photographs from my visits on April 11, 2009: http://www.flickr.com/photos/casperflea/sets/72157616573751841/ (Old Athens and Poplar Grove only; Oconee Hill requested that we not take pictures.)
Drew Gilpin Faust, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War (Knopf, New York, 2008).
“The South,” Samuel S. Hill, in Encyclopedia of the American Religious Experience (Scribner, New York, 1988) p. 1493-1508.
Christine Leigh Heyrman, Southern Cross: The Beginnings of the Bible Belt (Knopf, New York, 1997).
Biography of Pink Morton, at The Morton Theater website, http://www.mortontheatre.com/history/pink.php
Cemeteries are a fascinating reflection of societies, as they pull together threads of history, religion, aesthetics and landscape, economics, and demographics. Athens has three major historic cemeteries. The Old Athens Cemetery was the first public burial ground, opened when the town was founded in 1801. People "of all conditions and all races" were buried there up to the 1880s, when the cemetery became full and the city forbade new burials except in already opened family plots. By that date, many prominent Athenians were already being buried in the nearby Oconee Hills Cemetery, opened in 1856 and modeled after the suburban, 'landscaped' cemeteries like Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, MA. Oconee Hills is a private cemetery, still operating, with purchased lots. Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery was founded in 1882 as a private African-American cemetery, founded as a communal institution with a board of directors, and was mainly used until the 1970s, although a woman was buried there as late as 2003. Presumably Gospel Pilgrim's foundation was in part a reaction to the closing of the Old Athens Cemetery.
The three volumes describing the cemeteries are quite limited in scope, offering short historical sketches of the cemeteries and their preservation status at the time of writing, but being mainly concerned with listing known burials and grave monuments, with recordings of inscriptions. Visiting the three cemeteries allows a much better appreciation of their differences and the evolution of Athens. The Old Athens Cemetery is now surrounded by the UGA campus and shaded by large trees, but was probably an open area, and was definitely on the outskirts of town, at the time of its foundation. Many of the graves there were not marked at all, and many more were marked only with local fieldstones - sometimes a small footstone as well as a headstone. As early as the 1820s, however, there are some more elaborate grave markers, both inscribed standing headstones and flat built tombs with inscribed covers, often made of marble. Those that can still be read today include long verses, poetic and making biblical references, but without quoting the bible. There are almost no decorative carvings visible today, with the exception of a weeping willow roundel at the top of one gravestone, and overall the styles of even the largest and most elaborate (and presumably expensive) grave markers are simple, reflecting the contemporary Federal style in architecture. The stones that can be read reflect the hard life of the past: there are many young women buried who presumably died in childbirth, stones listing numerous children from a single family who all lived less than five years, and the grave of a UGA freshman from the 1830s.
In the years following 1856, many graves of people from prominent Athens families were removed to new family plots at the Oconee Hills Cemetery. The older parts of the cemetery have a distinctively Victorian flavor, with large plots belonging to prominent Athens families fenced off in wrought iron, and built stone monuments of a fairly elaborate nature, some with classical architectural elements and others neo-gothic. The Oconee River runs through the cemetery, and it was and is a landscaped space, deliberately designed to evoke certain emotions in its visitors and to promote contemplation of death in a beautiful and natural surrounding. Gravestone inscriptions tend to be short, often only a name, mention of close relations, and dates, and possibly a one-line biblical quotation. Stones are rarely carved with figures, but there are some sculptures - angels and lambs predominate. In this cemetery's historic sections one can clearly see the results of the creation of a Victorian culture of death that Faust discusses in her book: the emphasis on family and closeness, coupled with the desire to make a large and visible monument to the deceased (and his/her family) to reflect their status in life. There is more overt religiosity in this cemetery as well, reflective of the growing evangelicalism of the South in the 19th century as discussed in Hill's overview of Southern religion and emphasized in Heyrman's book on the growth of the evangelical movement in the South.
Hill describes the religious evolution in the Southern United States as shaped by the absence of 18th and 19th century immigration which led to religious diversity in the North and Midwest. As a result, the mainstream of Southern religion was evangelistic evangelicalism, mainly Baptist, Methodist, and Congregational, with Episcopalianism the only major contrasting option. This historical background is the basis for the current homogeneity of Christian religious practice in the South (in my "welcome to Athens" packet the brochure on local churches was more than half Methodist and Baptist churches). Heyrman goes into more detail about the distinctive development of Southern evangelicalism within the context of the broader religious awakening that swept America in the early 19th century, and, relying on many primary sources, in journals and letters, examines the prominence of women among the devout and discusses the populism of evangelicalism, which made it especially attractive in the South, which highly valued individualism.
It is interesting, then, that in this climate of religious activity in the South in the antebellum period, the major historic cemeteries of Athens have no religious affiliation. Rather, religious belief is expressed at the level of the individual tomb, often by an inscription. There are many churches in downtown Athens that date back to the 19th century, although few of them are in buildings that are as old as their congregations, and none have graveyards surrounding them. Rural churches in the surrounding area do have graveyards, but in Athens proper, at least, the locus of burial was civic, and religion was expressed personally.
The Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery dates to a later period, and reflects the vigor and increasing wealth of the African-American community in Athens even after the official end of Reconstruction in Georgia (in 1871). Its foundation in 1882 seems likely to have been a reaction to the closure of the Old Athens Cemetery to new burials in that year; presumably African-Americans were either not permitted to be buried in the Oconee Hills Cemetery, or were unable to afford the purchase price. As in many areas of civic life, the African-American population contrived a solution to the problem of civic burial by forming a communal association, operating much like an insurance company, to develop the Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery. The organization seems to have been vigorous until the death of the last sexton in the 1970s, at which point the cemetery fell into disrepair. In 2003-2004 there was an effort on the part of local development agencies to establish ownership of the land (which was uncertain), clear the overgrown cemetery, and hire a cultural resources contractor to document the graves. There is now a sign marking the cemetery, gravel-paved pathways that a car can fit down, and annual cleanups of the cemetery on service days like Martin Luther King Day.
Gospel Pilgrim is a much less elaborate cemetery than its contemporary, Oconee Hills. Many graves are not marked, and many of those that are have very small and simple headstones. As at Oconee Hills, however, there are family enclosures (usually low built stone or brick walls). The most prominent family grave enclosure is that of the Morton family, whose patriarch, Pink Morton, was a prominent black businessman in turn of the century Athens. The Morton Theater building housed a 500-seat auditorium which hosted contemporary notables like Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway, but also served as an office building for Athens’ black professionals, including the first black woman physician in Georgia. The vigor of the black community in Athens in the late 19th and early 20th century is reflected in the establishment of a private cemetery and the biography and accomplishments of Morton.
Historic Athens Cemeteries
Patricia Irvin Cooper and Glen McAninch, Map and Historical Sketch of the Old Athens Cemetery (Jackson Street, Athens, Georgia). (Old Athens Cemetery Foundation, Athens, GA, 1983).
Charlotte Thomas Marshall, Oconee Hill Cemetery; Tombstone Inscriptions for That Part of Cemetery West of Oconee River and Index to Record of Interments (Athens Historical Society, Athens, GA, 1971). See also http://www.oconeehillcemetery.com/
Albert L. Hester, Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery: An African-American Historic Site (Green Berry Press, Athens, GA, 2004). See also http://www.eadcinc.com/gospel_p_cem/
Photographs from my visits on April 11, 2009: http://www.flickr.com/photos/casperflea/sets/72157616573751841/ (Old Athens and Poplar Grove only; Oconee Hill requested that we not take pictures.)
Drew Gilpin Faust, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War (Knopf, New York, 2008).
“The South,” Samuel S. Hill, in Encyclopedia of the American Religious Experience (Scribner, New York, 1988) p. 1493-1508.
Christine Leigh Heyrman, Southern Cross: The Beginnings of the Bible Belt (Knopf, New York, 1997).
Biography of Pink Morton, at The Morton Theater website, http://www.mortontheatre.com/history/pink.php
Cemeteries are a fascinating reflection of societies, as they pull together threads of history, religion, aesthetics and landscape, economics, and demographics. Athens has three major historic cemeteries. The Old Athens Cemetery was the first public burial ground, opened when the town was founded in 1801. People "of all conditions and all races" were buried there up to the 1880s, when the cemetery became full and the city forbade new burials except in already opened family plots. By that date, many prominent Athenians were already being buried in the nearby Oconee Hills Cemetery, opened in 1856 and modeled after the suburban, 'landscaped' cemeteries like Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, MA. Oconee Hills is a private cemetery, still operating, with purchased lots. Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery was founded in 1882 as a private African-American cemetery, founded as a communal institution with a board of directors, and was mainly used until the 1970s, although a woman was buried there as late as 2003. Presumably Gospel Pilgrim's foundation was in part a reaction to the closing of the Old Athens Cemetery.
The three volumes describing the cemeteries are quite limited in scope, offering short historical sketches of the cemeteries and their preservation status at the time of writing, but being mainly concerned with listing known burials and grave monuments, with recordings of inscriptions. Visiting the three cemeteries allows a much better appreciation of their differences and the evolution of Athens. The Old Athens Cemetery is now surrounded by the UGA campus and shaded by large trees, but was probably an open area, and was definitely on the outskirts of town, at the time of its foundation. Many of the graves there were not marked at all, and many more were marked only with local fieldstones - sometimes a small footstone as well as a headstone. As early as the 1820s, however, there are some more elaborate grave markers, both inscribed standing headstones and flat built tombs with inscribed covers, often made of marble. Those that can still be read today include long verses, poetic and making biblical references, but without quoting the bible. There are almost no decorative carvings visible today, with the exception of a weeping willow roundel at the top of one gravestone, and overall the styles of even the largest and most elaborate (and presumably expensive) grave markers are simple, reflecting the contemporary Federal style in architecture. The stones that can be read reflect the hard life of the past: there are many young women buried who presumably died in childbirth, stones listing numerous children from a single family who all lived less than five years, and the grave of a UGA freshman from the 1830s.
In the years following 1856, many graves of people from prominent Athens families were removed to new family plots at the Oconee Hills Cemetery. The older parts of the cemetery have a distinctively Victorian flavor, with large plots belonging to prominent Athens families fenced off in wrought iron, and built stone monuments of a fairly elaborate nature, some with classical architectural elements and others neo-gothic. The Oconee River runs through the cemetery, and it was and is a landscaped space, deliberately designed to evoke certain emotions in its visitors and to promote contemplation of death in a beautiful and natural surrounding. Gravestone inscriptions tend to be short, often only a name, mention of close relations, and dates, and possibly a one-line biblical quotation. Stones are rarely carved with figures, but there are some sculptures - angels and lambs predominate. In this cemetery's historic sections one can clearly see the results of the creation of a Victorian culture of death that Faust discusses in her book: the emphasis on family and closeness, coupled with the desire to make a large and visible monument to the deceased (and his/her family) to reflect their status in life. There is more overt religiosity in this cemetery as well, reflective of the growing evangelicalism of the South in the 19th century as discussed in Hill's overview of Southern religion and emphasized in Heyrman's book on the growth of the evangelical movement in the South.
Hill describes the religious evolution in the Southern United States as shaped by the absence of 18th and 19th century immigration which led to religious diversity in the North and Midwest. As a result, the mainstream of Southern religion was evangelistic evangelicalism, mainly Baptist, Methodist, and Congregational, with Episcopalianism the only major contrasting option. This historical background is the basis for the current homogeneity of Christian religious practice in the South (in my "welcome to Athens" packet the brochure on local churches was more than half Methodist and Baptist churches). Heyrman goes into more detail about the distinctive development of Southern evangelicalism within the context of the broader religious awakening that swept America in the early 19th century, and, relying on many primary sources, in journals and letters, examines the prominence of women among the devout and discusses the populism of evangelicalism, which made it especially attractive in the South, which highly valued individualism.
It is interesting, then, that in this climate of religious activity in the South in the antebellum period, the major historic cemeteries of Athens have no religious affiliation. Rather, religious belief is expressed at the level of the individual tomb, often by an inscription. There are many churches in downtown Athens that date back to the 19th century, although few of them are in buildings that are as old as their congregations, and none have graveyards surrounding them. Rural churches in the surrounding area do have graveyards, but in Athens proper, at least, the locus of burial was civic, and religion was expressed personally.
The Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery dates to a later period, and reflects the vigor and increasing wealth of the African-American community in Athens even after the official end of Reconstruction in Georgia (in 1871). Its foundation in 1882 seems likely to have been a reaction to the closure of the Old Athens Cemetery to new burials in that year; presumably African-Americans were either not permitted to be buried in the Oconee Hills Cemetery, or were unable to afford the purchase price. As in many areas of civic life, the African-American population contrived a solution to the problem of civic burial by forming a communal association, operating much like an insurance company, to develop the Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery. The organization seems to have been vigorous until the death of the last sexton in the 1970s, at which point the cemetery fell into disrepair. In 2003-2004 there was an effort on the part of local development agencies to establish ownership of the land (which was uncertain), clear the overgrown cemetery, and hire a cultural resources contractor to document the graves. There is now a sign marking the cemetery, gravel-paved pathways that a car can fit down, and annual cleanups of the cemetery on service days like Martin Luther King Day.
Gospel Pilgrim is a much less elaborate cemetery than its contemporary, Oconee Hills. Many graves are not marked, and many of those that are have very small and simple headstones. As at Oconee Hills, however, there are family enclosures (usually low built stone or brick walls). The most prominent family grave enclosure is that of the Morton family, whose patriarch, Pink Morton, was a prominent black businessman in turn of the century Athens. The Morton Theater building housed a 500-seat auditorium which hosted contemporary notables like Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway, but also served as an office building for Athens’ black professionals, including the first black woman physician in Georgia. The vigor of the black community in Athens in the late 19th and early 20th century is reflected in the establishment of a private cemetery and the biography and accomplishments of Morton.