Way Back Yonder When the Population of Rose Hill was Not so Great as Now

Macon Telegraph
31 March 1919
(Viewed online at GenealogyBank.)

JUST 'TWIXT US
By BRIDGES SMITH

MADE mention the other day of the need of good roads in Rose Hill cemetery, and how it is necessary to pave the walks and driveways to keep them in passable condition, and which could not be done with the present limited means at the disposal of those in charge of the cemetery, and the rains causing an erosion that is constantly requiring attention.

Can tell you one thing, and if you will only think about it yourself you will agree, that unless more funds are provided from some source other than the sale of lots -- Macon being so healthy that the proceeds from this source are small -- some of these days you can take a walk over Rose Hill and then go over the old cemetery at the foot of Poplar street, and it will be a fifty-fifty proposition which is the most unkempt, the most neglected.

Here it is in April, the month in the year when thousands will go over Rose Hill, some as visitors to what should and can be the most beautiful spot in Macon, some to lay a flower on the tomb or grave of a loved one and many to honor the graves of the soldier dead on Memorial Day. Naturally beautiful, especially at this season, how much more attractive and inviting it would be if the roadways and walks were smooth and clean.

And if the lots of unknown owners, with no one to care for them, and of those whose owners are known but who seem to have forgotten them, were cleared off and cleaned only this one time in the year, how much dearer Rose Hill would be to the living. But the inadequate force of hands cannot look after the roadways, washed as they are by every rain, and do the necessary work of interments. What a saving there would be if the roads and walks were paved. The rains would be welcome then, because they would keep them as clean as brooms or sweepers.

The suggestion was made that the $2,000 paid every year by the Southern railway to the city for the privilege of desecrating that hallowed spot by running its trains through Rose Hill be applied to the upkeep. While this fund might not go far, it would go far enough, in the opinion of many, to paving the roads.

Way back yonder when the population of Rose Hill was not so great as now, and of course fewer lots to keep up, and labor was cheap, the place was kept so beautiful and attractive that on Sunday afternoons that was the one spot in Macon to visit. It was where every stranger wanted to go, for the fame of beautiful Rose Hill extended far. Every Macon man or woman felt a distinct pride in it.

We now speak in sorrow of the neglected condition of the old cemetery at the foot of Poplar street, of the sunken graves, the tumbled down monuments, of the weeds and briars growing over the graves, and of the dastardly deeds of the sacrilegious; but unless something is done toward paving the roadways and walks and prevent their being washed away, and lot-owners aroused to a sense of duty, those that come after us will tell the same story of the once beautiful Rose Hill.