Although some people think walking in cemeteries is the stuff of horror movies, many make a hobby of visiting graveyards to see the interesting epitaphs, take photos of beautiful funerary art and learn about history. Kelly Kazek | kkazek@al.com
Kelly Kazek | kkazek@al.com
Because Alabama is just now nearing its 200th year, most of our cemeteries are not considered old by world standards. Still, those that were established in Alabama's early years are filled with history and the ornate monuments that were popular in the Victorian era. Below are 11 of the most beautiful of our old cemeteries, eight of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The photo above shows the Pippen angels in Courtland Cemetery, which is described below.
Kelly Kazek | kkazek@al.com
Courtland Cemetery, Lawrence County
Established 1819
This small cemetery in Courtland, with about 1,000 burials, is noted for the early date of establishment and its beautiful funerary art, particularly the statues known as “the Pippen angels,” one of which is shown above.
Kelly Kazek | kkazek@al.com
The four differing cherub statues are atop the graves of the children of Samuel S. and Lida Foster Pippen. They are:
- Infant son Pippen (1896-1896)
- Susie Mahala Pippen (1899-1906)
- James Coleman Pippen (1901-1902)
- Cole Foster Pippen (1903-1906)
(Source: RuralSWAlabama.com)
Live Oak Cemetery, Selma
Established 1829
Selma’s Live Oak Cemetery is known as one of Alabama’s most eerily beautiful garden cemeteries. Spanish moss hangs from massive live oaks, creating lacey drapes over the intricate grave markers. The trees can be seen behind this ornate monument above to Drury Fair Jones.
(Source: RuralSWAlabama.com)
Live Oak Cemetery was founded in 1829 as West Selma Graveyard. When additional acreage was purchased in 1877, the name was changed to Live Oak Cemetery. Many early settlers, Selma leaders and prominent Alabamians are buried in Live Oak, including the only U.S. vice president from our state, William Rufus King. His mausoleum is shown above.
(Source: RuralSWAlabama.com)
Another historic Live Oak marker memorializes Elodie Todd Dawson, shown above, who was Mary Todd Lincoln’s sister. The marker on Elodie’s grave is a statue in her likeness specially ordered by her bereaved husband, N.H.R. Dawson, a Confederate colonel and Alabama politician.
Click here to read more about both monuments.
Kelly Kazek | kkazek@al.com
Live Oak Cemetery is listed on the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage. It is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places, along with the rest of Selma's Old Town Historic district.
(Source: Michael Dover via findaGrave.com)
Old Oakwood Cemetery, Montgomery
Established 1812
Many fans of Hank Williams Sr. have made pilgrimages to his grave in Montgomery, located in Oakwood Annex Cemetery. However, they may not realize the historically significant original Oakwood Cemetery is located nearby. It was Montgomery’s first city cemetery, founded in 1819. The cemetery has about 20,000 burials, including an Alabama governor, two Confederate brigadier generals and numerous other Civil War figures, as well as graves of more than 700 Confederate soldiers. The 140-acre cemetery is closed to new burials.
(Source: Michael Dover via findaGrave.com)
At Oakwood, there is also a marker in memory of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, although they are not buried in the cemetery. Zelda was born in Montgomery and the couple lived for a brief time in the city with their daughter Scottie during their marriage.
Kelly Kazek | kkazek@al.com
Church Street Graveyard, Mobile
Established 1819
Church Street Graveyard is one of the oldest cemeteries in Mobile. Established in 1819 on private property, it was bought by the city in 1820. City officials divided the cemetery into three sections: one for Catholics, one for Protestants and one for "others," which ended up being Masons, Odd Fellows, veterans and paupers. Many of those interred here were victims of yellow fever, according to Mobile's Parks Department.
Kelly Kazek | kkazek@al.com
One of the best-known people interred at Church Street Graveyard is Joe Cain, a Confederate veteran credited with reviving Mobile’s Mardi Gras after the Civil War. His marker is shown above with Mardi Gras beads placed on it.
Kelly Kazek | kkazek@al.com
Church Street Graveyard, above, was closed to burials in 1898, but the city has given permission for a few burials in modern years. These include burials of Julian Lee Rayford, an author and artist who led efforts to move Joe Cain’s body to the cemetery, and another artist and author, Eugene Walter, who was interred in 1998 after approval from the mayor.
Kelly Kazek | kkazek@al.com
Church Street Graveyard is also known for its variety of decorative iron work, a mix of local and imported pieces. Click here to read more about cemetery iron work in Alabama.
Kelly Kazek | kkazek@al.com
Blocton Italian Cemetery, West Blocton
Established 1896
Blocton Italian Catholic Cemetery in West Blocton in Bibb County is unique because of its numerous gravestones etched in Italian as well as the number of miners buried at the site. It was established in 1896 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Kelly Kazek | kkazek@al.com
At the time of its founding, Blocton Italian Cemetery was located in what was called Blocton, a coal mining company town established by the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company. In 1901, the site was consecrated by the Roman Catholic bishop of Mobile, Edward Patrick Allen.
Kelly Kazek | kkazek@al.com
Blocton Italian Cemetery was used until the 1960s, and has about 86 surviving monuments, including several with photos of the deceased inset in the markers. There is also a marker, shown above, dedicated to four miners killed in an 1897 explosion in the Blocton mines.
(Source: Jeffery Reed via Wikimedia Commons)
Catholic Cemetery, Mobile
Established 1848
Catholic Cemetery, listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Mobile Multiple Property Submission, was established by Michael Portier, the first Roman Catholic bishop of Mobile. It was initially called Stone Street Cemetery.
(Source: Jeffery Reed via Wikimedia Commons)
Catholic Cemetery was needed after the Catholic section of Church Street Graveyard was filled during yellow fever epidemics of the 1830s.
(Source: Jeffery Reed via Wikimedia Commons)
The 150-acre site contains as many as 18,000 burials and includes sections for the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, Daughters of Charity, Little Sisters of the Poor and Sisters of Mercy. Famous burials include those of Father Abram Joseph Ryan, known as the “poet priest of the Confederacy,” and Confederate Admiral Raphael Semmes.
(Contributed by Wil Elrick)
Elmwood Cemetery, Birmingham
Established 1900
This 412-acre cemetery in Birmingham, established by a group of fraternal organizations, has numerous notable burial sites among its 130,000 interments. The statue above of a World War I soldier marks the grave of Phillip Ross (1886-1937).
(Contributed by Wil Elrick)
Figural memorials in the likeness of the deceased are rare, and rarer still are the figures of men. The statue above in Elmwood Cemetery marks the grave of magician Victor Valentine Manfredo (1859-1912). The figure is holding a bird in each hand.
Kelly Kazek | kkazek@al.com
Also buried at Elmwood are numerous Alabama politicians, veterans and sports stars, as well as:
- Denise McNair, victim of the 1963 bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church
- Paul "Bear" Bryant, legendary football coach
- Mary Anderson, inventor of windshield wipers
- Father James Coyle, assassinated priest of St. Paul's Church (Click here to read about him)
- Eddie Kendricks, co-founder of The Temptations
(Source: Carol Highsmith via Library of Congress)
Forks of Cypress Cemetery, Florence
Established ca. 1819
Forks of Cypress Cemetery near Florence is situated near the ruins of a mansion called Forks of Cypress. The surviving columns are now a roadside attraction. Although they are located on private property, they are visible from the road. Across the street is the cemetery founded ca. 1819 where the mansion’s owner, James Jackson, is buried. Members of the Jackson family and slaves who worked on the plantation are also buried in the cemetery, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
(Source: Carol Highsmith via Library of Congress)
The five-acre Forks of Cypress Cemetery is divided into the Jackson family plot, surrounded by a stone fence, and the plot with plantation workers who were initially slaves and later tenant farmers. Author Alex Haley’s great-grandmother, Easter Jackson (1816-1860), is buried in the cemetery, as well as two slaves who were jockeys for horses at the plantation’s stables. The cemetery contains some Greek Revival and Classical Revival-style monuments.
Kelly Kazek | kkazek@al.com
Magnolia Cemetery, Mobile
Established 1836
Mobile's Magnolia Cemetery is widely known as having some of the most elaborate and beautiful monuments in the south. The 120-acre site includes more than 80,000 burials, including those of many famous people. A few plots remain available for burial.
Kelly Kazek | kkazek@al.com
Magnolia Cemetery was established in 1836 on 36 acres of land.
Kelly Kazek | kkazek@al.com
Some of Magnolia Cemetery’s most famous burials include:
- Braxton Bragg, Confederate general
- James Battle, owner of the historic Battle House Hotel
- Augusta Evans Wilson, Civil War nurse and author who wrote her first book at age 15
- Michael Krafft, Mardi Gras' Cowbellian de Rakin society founder
- Chappo Geronimo, son of Apache chief Geronimo
Kelly Kazek | kkazek@al.com
A National Cemetery with graves of more than 6,000 veterans adjoins Magnolia.
Kelly Kazek | kkazek@al.com
Maple Hill Cemetery, Huntsville
Established ca. 1818-1822
Maple Hill Cemetery, established in 1822, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Alabama Historical Commission’s Historic Cemetery Record.
Kelly Kazek | kkazek@al.com
The 100-acre Maple Hill Cemetery contains more than 80,000 burials –possibly as many as 100,000 – including those of five Alabama governors, U.S. senators and representatives, Confederate and Union veterans, and other prominent state and national figures. It also includes a potter’s field.
Kelly Kazek | kkazek@al.com
Among the most notable burials are:
- Leroy Pope Walker, Confederate Secretary of War who gave the order to fire on Fort Sumter
- Konrad Dannenberg, a German-American rocket pioneer
- Robert Spragins, World War II general
Kelly Kazek | kkazek@al.com
Oak Hill Cemetery, Birmingham
Established before 1869
Oak Hill Cemetery, established as Birmingham's City Cemetery in 1871, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Located on about 21 acres in downtown Birmingham, it contains about 10,000 burials.
Kelly Kazek | kkazek@al.com
Many of Birmingham's founders and early citizens are buried at Oak Hill. Burials include nine of the ten landholders who founded the city, several early mayors and the first male child born following the city’s incorporation. Military burials include a Revolutionary War soldier and veterans of the Civil War. The paupers’ burial section likely includes graves of the victims of the 1873 cholera epidemic. The cemetery also has a large section of African American burials.
Kelly Kazek | kkazek@al.com
Other famous burials at Oak Hill include:
- Louise Wooster, well-known brothel owner who stayed to nurse victims of the 1873 cholera epidemic. Her grave is shown abov.e
- Emma, Irene and May Hawes, murder victims. In 1888, Emma Hawes was killed by her husband, Richard, who also murdered two of the couple's three daughters, Irene, age 6, and May, age 7 or 8. Richard was hanged and buried in Atlanta. Mother and daughters are buried in unmarked graves in Oak Hill.
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