I am a University of Georgia student in Dr. Berry’s Death: A Human History class and am currently doing a project about the history of the African American section of the cemetery. I have been to the African American section a few times, but am at a loss about what to mention in the project since I could only find 3 graves that were identified by a tombstone there. Any information about the history of the section or individuals buried in the section would be greatly appreciated.
Caitlin Henderson
Dear Caitlin,
Mr. Smith has referred your query to me, the historian of Oconee Hill Cemetery. No one had ever collected any information about the “Colored Burying Ground” as it was listed in the Record of Interments before I assembled what could be found for my Oconee Hill Cemetery of Athens, Georgia, Volume I, in 2009. In fact, the Pauper Burying Ground and the Colored Burying Ground had never been shown of a map of the cemetery until I had my graphic artist, Kenneth Storey, label those areas. See pages 264-70.
When Oconee Cemetery, as it was originally named, was being laid out in 1856, there was not sufficient land for the Pauper and Colored Burying Grounds. Additional land was acquired from adjoining landowner, former Governor Wilson Lumpkin, whose plantation encompassed much of what is the valley that became Sanford Stadium 70+ years later and much of the land that comprises South Campus. I suppose you are aware of Lumpkin’s stone residence at the crest of Cedar Hill (his name for it). As he wrote in the chapter on housebuilding in his autobiography, he hoped he’d put some of his character into those stone walls. See my Historic Houses of Athens (1988). The autobiography os available in manuscript form in the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library. In exchange Lumpkin got the topmost lot on West Hill and moved the grave of his son Samuel who had died in 1839 while a junior at the university. It is my understanding that Lumpkin could stand in his back doorway and see the grave of this promising son. That ledger is almost impossible to read today, but when I was there this past Saturday morning about 9:30 the letters were as clear in the early morning light as I’ve ever seen them. Governor Lumpkin was buried in the center of that circle when he died in 1870 but his grave was not marked until 1918 when his great-grandson UGA Chancellor David Crenshaw Barrow and current chairman of the board of trustees of Oconee Cemetery erected a monument echoing the architecture of the stone house.
[I realize I am telling you things you don’t need to know for your project but all of this is woven together in my mind after years of researching both the cemetery and Wilson Lumpkin.]
The Friends of Oconee Hill Cemetery had begun to clear the tangled vines and undergrowth from the area before the death of my husband, George O. Marshall, Jr., in September 2012. It is my understanding that a significant number of memorial contributions were given in his name, and the Board of FOHC asked me if I had a preference about how those funds were used. I requested that they be used to complete the clearing of the Colored Burying Ground and of the adjacent Pauper Burying Ground. One of the newsletters of the Friends has an article about this. If you don’t locate the newsletter via the website, contact me and I will scan my copy for you.
I do not know where you are going to find any more substantive information about the Colored Burying Ground. There are a very few obituaries in the Athens newspapers for African American citizens buried there. I have searched. I’m sure there were mentions of this section of the cemetery in the minutes of the Board of Trustees of the cemetery, but I do not know where the early minutes are — if indeed they are extant. I was the first woman to serve as a trustee of the cemetery (1979-84) and for several of those years I was the secretary. Even then I never learned where the older minutes were stored. I can only assume the pre-1897 minutes burned along with other cemetery documents. However, it’s entirely possible they were in the possession of the secretary of that era and lingered among his effects after his death. They may still be in someone’s attic or basement, or they may long ago have been trashed.
Attached is the painting by John Cleaveland showing a view of Oconee Hill Cemetery circa 1948. I do not know where he found the photograph on which he based this painting. The painting hangs in the Athens First Federal building on Hancock Avenue. The trestle supporting the railroad had originally been open from this point all the way north to where the tracks were on grade. Between the 1880s and 1948 most of the area under the trestle was filled with clay and dirt. If you study aerial shots of Sanford Stadium between 1929 and the 1950s you will see unfilled portions which allowed cars to drive into the cemetery at the foot of West Hill very near the Colored Burying Ground. When the trestles were filled, this resulted in covering some African-American graves, identities unknown today. Also, when the city’s sewer system of installed, at least one African-American grave was disturbed. You will find in the digitized Athens newspapers where the widow of the man whose grave was breached was contemplating suing the City.
I think this is all I know to share with you. However, I will be happy to meet you at the cemetery or talk or email with you as you progress in your research. Sunday I met another member of your class, Nellie Brunson. I don’t know whether this is a joint project or if each of you is to work independently. I would very much appreciate a copy of your paper(s) to add to our knowledge of the cemetery.
Charlotte Thomas Marshall
