The Macon Daily Telegraph
27 March 1907

Caught on the Wing
By JOHN T. BOIFEUILLET

The remains of the daughter of a former Governor of Georgia, the dust of a
president of the first bank in Macon, and the ashes of other persons once
well known in this city repose in the old cemetery situated near the foot
of Cherry street. This is the burial ground which Alderman Bowdre, with
commendable spirit, desires to have reclaimed by the Mayor and Council
from many long years of neglect. Broken tombstones, bearing inscriptions
to the memories of members of families formerly prominent in Macon, lie on
the ground, under leaves and dirt, the walls of the graves in a crumbled
state. Some of the tombstones still stand erect, and the lettering on
them is easily read, but in the majority of cases the marble memorials are
badly broken and the inscriptions almost obliterated by the corroding
effects of time. In numerous instances there is scarcely any sign of a
grave, and in many places no trace of one exists. The lot of a name still
prominent in this city is surrounded by a well preserved brick wall, with
an iron gate locked and which bears evidence that it has not been
unfastened in considerably more than a half of a century. The marble
slabs over the graves of the husband and wife tell of their deaths in 1838
and 1839, respectively.

This cemetery was the first buri[a]l ground in Macon. In 1826 the
Legislature reserved the land for this purpose. It consisted originally
of four acres between Cherry and Poplar and Sixth and Seventh streets, but
perhaps some of it has been encroached upon for building purposes. The
first interment in this cemetery was John Clark, a painter. He died on
November 24, 1824, being the first death among the citizens of the town of
macon. Prior to the reservation of this ground by the Legislature for a
cemetery, the town commissioners in the early part of 1824 had set aside
the four acres for sites for religious meeting houses, with burial ground
attached. Afterwards the Legislature gave other locations for the
churches and reserved the four acres for a cemetery exclusively, and
according to my information it was abandoned as a burial ground some years
before the Civil War. A number of bodies were removed from there and
reinterred in Rose Hill Cemetery. One of these was that of Rev. John
Howard, the first presiding elder of the Methodist church in this city,
and a man who took a leading part in establishing Wesleyan Female
College. He died August 22, 1836, and was buried in the Cherry street
cemetery, and a monument was erected to his memory by the Methodist
church. The inscription thereon was written by Rev. Ignatius A. Few, who,
in 1829, as pastor of the Mulberry Street Methodist church, established
the Sunday school of that church. The monument referred to can be seen
over Rev. Mr. Howard's g[r]ave in Rose Hill. It is said that this was the
first monument ever built in Macon.

Curiosity carried me yesterday to the old cemetery, abandoned and
neglected, overgrown with trees, weeds and briars, the browsing place of
cattle, the home of reptiles, cut up with footpaths signs of descration
everywhere. In this scene of neglect I read with almost a tear, the
inscription "Remember me," on a tombstone hidden among the briars, and in
order to decipher the words I had to brush away the mold and fungi of many
decades. "Remember me." How like a mockery this seemed! -- there buried
in the tangled bush through which the sunlight could scarcely bleam.

While wandering about I saw upon the ground the broken monument which had
been "erected by the kindness of the Presbyterian church" to the memory of
the wife of Rev. Samuel J. Cassels. She died in Macon on May 24, 1838.
Her husband was the second regular pastor of the First Presbyterian church
of this city. His pastorate commenced in 1835 and ended in April, 1841.
During his ministry the house of worship which was being constructed by
the Presbyterians on Fourth street between Mulberry and Walnut streets,
was completed and occupied.

This church was afterwards bought by the Catholics, and they still own the
ground upon which it stood. While Rev. Mr. Cassels was pastor the late
Eugenius A. Nisbet, who was a distinguished Congressman and an eminent
justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia became an elder in the First
Presbyterian Church. In memory of the faithful services of Rev. Samuel
Cassels it seems to me that it would be appropriate and proper for the
First Presbyterian Church to remove the remains and monument of Mrs.
Cassels to a more suitable burial place. On a part of the monument upon
the ground I read an inscription to the beautiful Christian character of
the deceased. Her last word were also quoted, to-wit: "Christ is my only
salvation."

Then I cam across a marble slab under which repose the dust of a former
distinguished college professor, Elisha Hammond. The inscription told
that he was born in Massachusetts in 1764, and died in Macon, July 9,
1829. He was a graduate of Darmouth College, N.H. He emigrated to South
Carolina, and first became a professor in the South Carolina College, and
then a professor at Mt. Bethel Academy. The tribute upon the slab says
that he was a man of great learing and was noted as an instructor.

A monument to the memory of Charles W. Washington tells the sad story of
his drowning in Walnut Creek, March 1, 1833.

John E. Carter was a native of Boston, Mass., and died in Macon, October
24, 1837, aged 20 years. And though he passed away "a stranger in a
strange land," as his epitaph recites, a nice tombstone was erected to his
memory, upon which is inscribed, among other things, the following:
"Thus died the stranger in a foreign clime,
Lovely and young in all manhood's prime;
Away from friends and parents to whom he was most dear,
And brother and sister too, who drop affection's tear."

The earliest trace of a burial that I saw was that of Mrs. Rebecca A.
Pace, consort of Thomas Pace. She died December 30, 1828. Over her grave
rests a marble slab. What attracted my attention was the statement in the
inscription that she was the daughter of Jared Irwin. Here then was the
sacred dust of the cherished child of a man who was Governor of Georgia
several times, and held other positions of public honor and
responsibility. He first occupied the office of Governor from January 17,
1796, to January 11, 1798. He had the distinction while Governor, in
1796, of signing the act rescinding the Yazoo law. In 1806 he was
president of the State Senate and became Acting Governor on the election
of Gov. John Milledge as United States Senator. He continued Acting
Governor from September 23, 1806, to November 7, 1808, when he was elected
Governor, and filled the office from November 7, 1806, to November 9,
1809. He served as Governor under two constitutions. He was the
president of the constitutional convention of 1789. Mr. Irwin was
president of the Senate at various times, both before and after being
Governor, commencing in 1790. He was holding the presidency of this body
at the time of his death, which occurred at Union Hill, Washington County,
March 1, 1818, to which place he had moved from Burke County. Gov. Irwin
was 68 years old when he died. This prominent man was born in North
Carolina, and removed to Burke County, Georgia, before the revolution, in
which conflict he took a gallant part, and afterwards served in campaigns
against the Indians. He was made a brigadier-general because of his
splendid military services. At the close of the Revolutionary War he was
a member of the first Legislature held in Georgia under the new form of
Government. In Sandersville stands a monument that was erected to his
memory by the State of Georgia. Irwin County was named in his honor.

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Rose Hill Cemetery

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