Iverson Fowler Holt (1847-1927) and wife Katie G. Stevens

Iverson F. was born June 1847 in Georgia (likely Houston County) to Fowler and Martha Compton (b. abt 1815) Holt. After the death of his father in 1855, it seems Iverson spent at least some time with his uncle Milton Holt (b. abt 1798) in White Sulphur Springs, Meriwether County, Georgia. They were together there for the taking of the 1860 census. And it's from Meriwether County that Iverson enlisted in the Confederate States Army, about a month before his sixteenth birthday.

Rumor has it Iverson was "...Wounded at Hatcher's Run, VA Apr. 5, 1865. Sent to Richmond, VA hospital. Pension records show he was sent home on wounded furlough Apr. 9, 1865." [FindAGrave Memorial Bio]

It was also recorded in Robert S. Davis's Georgia Black Book that an Iverson F. Holt of Bibb County was admitted to the Georgia Lunatic Asylum some time between 1853 and 1870. I wonder if his admittance has more to do with his Civil War wounds than him truly being a "lunatic."

I have yet to locate Iverson in census records for 1870 or 1880, but a marriage record shows he married Katherine "Katie" Grimes Stevens 29 January 1879 at Bibb County. Katie, born 25 March 1858 in Georgia, was a daughter of Miles G. Stevens and wife Letitia.

According to the 1910 Macon, Bibb County, Georgia Federal census, Catherine had six children. Only three were living at the time, and it seems those were the only three to make it to adulthood:

• Mildred L. Holt was born 29 September 1883 in Georgia. She married Clarence D. Williams about 1907, and they had at least three children. Mildred died 15 June 1972 at Duval County, Florida, and was buried in Oakland Cemetery at Tallahassee, Leon County.
• Miles Fowler Holt was born 18 May 1886 in Georgia. He married Esther Sutton (1888-1973) about 1910, and they had at least three children. Miles died 30 April 1967 in Bibb County, and was buried in Macon Memorial Park.
• Albert Sharp Holt was born September 1890 in Macon. He married Maybelle (1892-1967) about 1917, and they had at least one son. Albert died 18 June 1970 at Bibb County, and was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery at Griffin, Spalding County.

By 1910, Iverson was working as a clerk for the railroad. He likely followed this same (or similar) occupation until retirement. Iverson's last address was 1716 Second Street, Macon. He died there 4 September 1927, and Katie lived on for almost twenty-one more years. They both were buried in Rose Hill Cemetery's Central Avenue Division.

An obituary for Iverson ran in the 5 September 1927 Macon Telegraph under the headline, Veteran Dies After Illness: I. F. Holt, Long in Bad Health Succumbs at Home.

Also buried in Rose Hill is Iverson's sister, Mary Chandler Holt. She died in 1870 at the age of twenty, and was buried in a lot purchased by her and Iverson's uncle, Pulaski S. Holt.

See also >> "Pulaski S. Holt Outlived Them All"

Louisa Polhill Butts (d. 1892) & the Georgia Lunatic Asylum

Louisa Mary Polhill was born about 1822 in either North Carolina or Georgia. According to the granite marker placed at her burial site in Rose Hill Cemetery – likely added some years after her death – Louisa was a daughter of Harriet Allen Taylor and John Goldwire Polhill, a judge of the Superior Court of Georgia. (Harriet was also buried in Rose Hill upon her death in 1873.)

Louisa married James Rogers Butts (1802-1869) on 7 July 1841 at Baldwin County, Georgia. This couple had at least seven children:

• Catharine G. Butts Atwood (d. 1870)
• Tallulah Ellen Butts Atwood (d. 1909)
• Harriett Laura Butts (1854-1855)
• Elijah Polhill Butts (d. 1892)
• Jessie C. Butts (1859-1953)
• James Albert Butts (d. 1930)
• John G. Polhill Butts (d. 1913)

James and Louisa settled in Macon, Bibb County, Georgia after their marriage. Per the 1860 census, James owned real estate valued at $90,000. He worked as a land agent and surveyor until his death in July of 1869, and the 1870 mortality schedule of the US Federal census provided James died of "Congestion of the Brain."

It's possible Louisa did not handle the death of her husband well. Her name – Mrs. Louisa Butts of Bibb County – appears on a list of Georgia Lunatic Asylum Patients in Robert Davis's Georgia Black Book: Morbid, Macabre, & Sometimes Disgusting Records of Genealogical Value, admitted between the years of 1853 and 1870. Louisa is a head of household in Macon for the July 1870 census, so it's possible she was admitted to the Milledgeville hospital shortly thereafter.

1937 view of front, Milledgeville State Hospital. Parts of central building date back to Civil War.
Photographer L. D. Andrew, public domain.

According to the 1880 Baldwin County, Georgia Federal census, Louisa was still a patient at the "State Lunatic Asylum," and noted specifically as "insane." I presume Louisa was a patient at the asylum until her death in 1892. Though I have not come across a specific record that states as much, her obituary noted she died at Milledgeville.

For that same year census, Louisa's three youngest children (Jessie, James, and John) were residing with their oldest living sister, Tallulah Butts Atwood, in McIntosh County, Georgia.

Louisa's Legacy: Notes on Her Children

• Catharine G. Butts was born 10 September 1843 in Georgia. She married William Henry Atwood, son of Henry Skilton Atwood and Ann McIntosh, 16 August 1867 at Bibb County, Georgia. They had one child, Louise M. Atwood, before Catharine died 8 October 1870. She was buried in the James R. Butts lot at Rose Hill Cemetery. (Image of her tombstone at right.)
• Tallulah Ellen Butts was born 5 October 1850 in Georgia. Tallulah, after the death of her sister Catharine, also married William Henry Atwood on 17 October 1871 in Fulton County, Georgia. This couple had at least six children: Henry G., Maud A. (1875-1957), James R., Jane C., Elliott McIntosh, and Sibyl Jessie (1890-1919). Tallulah died 1 November 1909, and was buried at the Atwood Family Cemetery in McIntosh County.
• Harriett Laura Butts was less than a year old when she died 17 January 1855. Hers was the first burial in the family lot at Rose Hill Cemetery, James purchasing the lot the day after her death.
• Elijah Polhill Butts was born in Macon, Bibb County, Georgia about 1856-1857. He married Ada Creswell after 1880, and they had at least four children: Carolee J., Adrienne C. (1887-1950), Julia P., and Catharine Isle (b. 1891). Elijah met an accidental death 11 January 1892 while working as the "Resident Engineer" on a reconstruction project on the Burlington Bridge in Des Moines County, Iowa. He "was struck on the head by a stone, receiving a fracture of the skull which proved fatal. No one saw the accident, but he was found unconscious under [a] pier."
• Jessie C. Butts was born 22 May 1859 in Macon. By the early 1900s, it seems she had devoted herself to the Christian Science belief. In a 1903 Christian Science Journal, Jessie was noted as a "first reader" for services at the First Church of Christ, Scientist in Terre Haute, Indiana. The 1910 McIntosh County, Georgia Federal census gave her an occupation of "Doctor, Scientist," and her 1953 death certificate stated her usual occupation as "C. S. Practitioner." Jessie, who never married, died at "Mrs. Della Anderson's Rest Home" in Austin, Travis County, Texas.
• James Albert Butts was born 12 August 1861 at Macon. Some time after reaching adulthood, James made his way West. I'm not certain how he spent his time between 1880 and 1910, though I should note his death certificate gave him the occupation of miner dating prior to 1903. – For the 1910 Maricopa County, Arizona Territory census, James was an inmate at the "Territorial Insane Asylum." He was at the same institution in April 1930, then called the Arizona State Hospital for the Insane. James died 8 months later. His death certificate noted he had been a resident of the institution for 27+ years. Cause of death was chronic myocarditis, with a contributory factor noted as psychosis.
• John G. Polhill Butts was born in Macon just before Christmas in either 1886 or 1887. He became a civil engineer for the railroad, and maintained a residence in Macon. On 11 April 1906, John married Sara Wright Flournoy in Morganfield, Union County, Kentucky. This was noted as his second marriage. John contracted pulmonary tuberculosis, and died at a sanitarium in El Paso, Texas 8 December 1913. Per his death certificate, John had been at the Homan Sanatorium 10 days; in the state of Texas 6 months. The disease was contracted at Macon, Georgia, and the same location was noted to be his usual residence. Burial was at Evergreen Cemetery in El Paso.

Gov. Nathaniel Edwin Harris (1846-1929)

Confederate Soldier.  Governor of Georgia.  Founder of Georgia School of Technology.

The Southern's Ponce de Leon came through here at 8:20 p.m. bearing the body of the distinguished soldier, statesman and educator to his final honors among his friends and neighbors in Macon.

From Augusta Chronicle (Georgia)
23 September 1929 - pg. 1 [via GenealogyBank]

IMPRESSIVE RITE TO MARK FUNERAL OF 'NAT' E. HARRIS

Company of National Guard to Fire Salute Over Casket

PALLBEARERS CHOSEN

High State Officials Among Many to Pay Last Respects to Georgian

Macon, Ga., Sept 22 (AP) -- Georgia tomorrow will pay its last respects to Nathaniel Edwin Harris, former governor, distinguished Confederate veteran and father of the Georgia School of Technology, who died last night at his summer home at Hampton, Tenn., after a lingering illness...

The casket will be draped with the Stars and Bars of the Confederacy and a company of national guardsmen will fire a military salute over the grave.  Taps will be sounded as the casket is lowered.

...Governor Harris was 84 years of age and had been suffering for more than a year from trouble that forced his retirement from public life.  During the last few weeks he had been sinking gradually and his illness, together with advanced age, soon wore down his resistance.  The end came a few hours after he lost consciousness yesterday afternoon.  The family was at his bedside for several days before his death...

Further Reading:
Myers, Barton. "Nathaniel E. Harris (1846-1929)." New Georgia Encyclopedia. 14 May 2013. Web.

The Rosses of Rose Hill

In the Central Avenue Division West of Rose Hill Cemetery (block 8), is the burial ground for some members of the ROSS family.  You can't miss it.  Several of the tombstones are tall and ornate, to be sure, but what always strikes me is their stark white color.  They stand out prominently among the surroundings.

There are at least eleven family members buried in this lot purchased by John B. Ross.  The patriarch of this branch of the family was Mr. Luke Ross.  He and his wife, Mary Grimes, came to the Macon area from Martin County, North Carolina in the early 1800s.  John was a son of Luke and Mary.

As was written in his obituary (Macon Weekly Telegraph, 24 September 1844), "For some weeks previous to his last and fatal illness, he [Luke Ross, Esq.] seemed to have a premonition of his approaching dissolution." The family burial lot was purchased by son John about four months prior to Luke's death.  But what might be even more telling, is the sale of the plantation known as Ross' Place even earlier in the year.  It was described in the local newspaper as being "two miles above Macon, on the East side of the Ocmulgee River, containing 400 acres -- 250 acres cleared, 200 of which is first rate Corn and Cotton Land, under tolerable good fence."

This coincides with what was written by G. S. Dickerman in the The House of Plant about 1900 regarding the settlement of the Luke Ross family in middle Georgia:

It was about this time or in 1821, that Mr. Luke Ross having come from North Carolina with his family and all his effects, arrived at old Fort Hawkins and proceeded to select a place for his future home.  The spot decided upon was on the east side of the [Ocmulgee] river in what is now East Macon, and about two miles distant from Macon itself...

The rest of the marked burials in the Ross lot belong to John B. Ross and his immediate family.  Col. Ross was born 1808 in North Carolina, and first married Ann Lane Holt in 1834, Macon.  She was a daughter of Tarpley and Elizabeth "Betsy" (Flewellen) Holt.  This union produced five children:  William Henry (b. abt 1837), Tarpley Holt (1840-1848), John Franklin, Ann Flewellyn (d. 1892), and Carolina Virginia.

Tarpley Holt and John Franklin Ross are both buried in the family lot at Rose Hill.  John "died on the field of honor" in Kentucky, 1862.  He was just nineteen years old.

After Ann's death in 1844, John married Martha Leonora Redding in March of 1845, Macon.  She was a daughter of William Chambliss and Margaret (Flewellyn) Redding.  Martha's mother was a sister to Ann's mother.  John and Martha produced six more children:  Mary Matthews (b. 1846), Nora (d. 1855), Viola (b. abt 1850), Margaret Redding (1852-1917), Fanny Elvira (d. 1898), and Martha Florence (1857-1922).

Nora and Martha Florence Ross are buried in the family lot at Rose Hill Cemetery.

After the death of Martha Leonora (Redding) Ross in 1858, John waited eight years before marrying for the final time.  His third wife was Mary Ann (Lamar) Longstreet.  Mary was the daughter of L. Q. C. Lamar, and the widow of James Longstreet.

John had three more children with Mary:  John Bennett Jr. (b. 1867), Thompson Lamar (b. 1870), and Donald Graeme (b. 1877).  The final son was born just a couple months before the death of his father.

John B. Ross was laid to rest beside his first two wives in Rose Hill.

The other two marked burials in the Ross family lot are for Graeme Dickerman Plant (1894-1964) and his wife Elizabeth Davenport (1897-1988).  Graeme was a grandson of John B. and Martha (Redding) Ross.  The parents of Graeme, Margaret Redding Ross and Robert Hazlehurst Plant, also rest in Rose Hill – in a lot adjacent to the Ross family.

Video of Ross Family Burial Lot in Rose Hill Cemetery, from 2009:

History of this branch of the Ross family available here:

Appleton P. Collins, Macon City Physician

Appleton P. Collins was born November 1835 in Macon, Georgia to Charles Collins and Sophia Rossetter.  Appleton graduated from medical school right before the Civil War broke out.  He enlisted 17 May 1861 into Company B of the 2nd Battalion, Georgia Infantry.  Dr. Collins was discharged from that company 1 September 1862 when he was approved to be an assistant surgeon for the Confederate States Army.  His six-page compiled service record file may be viewed online at Fold3.

After the war, Dr. Collins was appointed City Physician for his home town of Macon.  Richard W. Iobst, in Civil War Macon, details the work of the young doctor (1999, Mercer University Press. Pgs. 437 & 438):

The City Council directed Dr. A. P. Collins, the City Physician, to organize a smallpox hospital in July [1865].  With his own money Collins bought suitable furniture including bunks, mattresses, bedding, and cooking utensils to serve a hospital of sixty beds, reporting "The hospital supplies did not cost the city one farthing not even hauling to the hospital." Colonel White, then Commandant of the Post, had allowed Collins the use of an army ambulance to carry smallpox cases from the city to the hospital.  Collins, under the authority of the Mayor and City Council, employed three hospital attendants...By December, through careful management, Collins and his staff had spent only $60 of public money to purchase provisions.  Only two cords of wood were provided by the city because, Collins explained, "I have managed to surmount it [the scarcity of wood] by making the convalescent patients and attendants go to the rear of the hospital and cut old logs and brush." After being forced to turn over the ambulance to the Freedmens Bureau on 27 November Collins used his own team to carry smallpox cases out of Macon to the hospital free of charge to the city.

Since the hospital was organized Collins had admitted and treated about 300 smallpox cases, 275 Blacks and twenty-five whites, treating all of these with medicine, food, nursing, and bedding, and had not received pay or compensation for one third of those he cared for...

Appleton P. Collins married Susan Campbell, daughter of Edward Dorr Tracy, Jr., 15 October 1879.  Dr. Collins was almost 44 years of age, and Susie was just 21.  The couple would have two daughters, the youngest born just a few years before the doctor's death.  This daughter, Sophia Rossetter Collins, would live to be 103 years old.

Dr. Appleton P. Collins died 8 December 1886, just days after his 51st birthday.  The following is from 9 December 1886 Macon Telegraph (full obituary available online at GenealogyBank).

DEATH OF DR. COLLINS

Another Prominent Citizen of Macon Passes Quietly Away.
The death of Dr. Appleton P. Collins occurred yesterday morning at his residence on Madison street at 3:30 o'clock.

His death was not wholly unexpected.  For several weeks he had been confined to his bed by a partial stroke of paralysis, and though everything was done that medical skill and loving, watchful care could do, all hope for his recovery fled a few days ago.

Dr. Collins was fifty-one years old on Sunday, November 28th, and was born in Macon.  His school days were spent here, and though he did not receive a collegiate education, his unusually bright and active mind gave him an advantage that made him the peer of many who had gone through all the books.

When the war broke out he had just graduated with distinction from the Medical College of New Orleans.  The Macon Volunteers, of which he was a member, left Macon for Virginia, and he followed them two weeks later to join them at Norfolk.  A year later he was assigned to one of the hospitals at Richmond as surgeon.

After the war he returned to Macon and was made city physician at a time when the great small-pox epidemic prevailed.  At one time he had about 1,000 cases under his care.  When his term expired he concluded to retire from the practice of medicine, having a sufficiency to live upon.  He made two trips to Europe and extended his travels to the Holy Land, in which he took a great interest.

…About six years ago he married Miss Susie Tracey, who survives him with two children.

His funeral takes place this afternoon from Christ Church, and he will be buried with Masonic honors.

One final note:  Appleton P. Collins' last will and testament is available in the Georgia Wills and Probate Records database at Ancestry.

Helping Georgia's Blind and Serving the Confederate Soldier

From it's inception in 1851 to his death thirty years later, Dr. James Mercer Green was attached to the Georgia Academy for the Blind.  He co-founded the project and was on the board of trustees as president and medical director.  The following article, which was one of many to come, kicked off the idea and fund raising for the cause.  (Full article transcribed by Margie A. Daniels for USGenNet.org.)

5 April 1851, Georgia Citizen

THE BLIND IN GEORGIA

We are happy to learn that an effort is now making for the commencement of an Institution for the education of the blind youth of our State, and that a meeting for the purpose of encouraging and sustaining this effort, will be held on Monday evening next, at half-past seven o'clock, at the Methodist Church.  An address will be delivered on this occasion by Walter S. Fortescue, a graduate of the Pennsylvania Institution for the Blind, and more recently a graduate of the University of that State, at the close of which, preparatory measures for the establishment of an institution of this character will doubtless be taken by the citizens.  When it is remembered that the Legislatures of more than two-thirds of the States have already made ample arrangements for the education of their blind, it is to us a matter of surprise that Georgia, occupying so prominent a position in the Union as she does, should have so long remained indifferent to the to the [sic] educational interests of this class of her youth…

When Dr. Green's life and commitment to the academy was complete upon his death in 1881, a lengthy obituary (of which a portion I shared yesterday) was printed in the local newspaper.  Regarding the work of Dr. Green and the Georgia Academy for the Blind, this is what was said (in part):

He was the first to suggest the idea of establishing the Georgia Academy for the Blind, located at Macon, and of whose board of directors he was the first and only president.  One of the officers of the institution, entirely familiar with its history, thus writes:  "Dr. Green was a man whose benevolent instincts were largely developed.  He ever regarded human suffering and infirmity with compassionate feeling.  Institutions designed for the amelioration of the sufferings of these classes of our fellow creatures, received a large measure of his study and interest.  He kept himself informed as to their specail [sic] work, and was a zealous advocate of their cause.  This was notably the case as to the Georgia Academy for the Blind…Although at that time actively engaged in the prosecution of his profession, and encumbered with a large practice, he found time to exert all the influence he had, enlisting his numerous friends by personal appeals and solicitations in behalf of the enterprise…He was made a member of the board of temporary trustees, and when the enterprise culminated in a chartered State charity, he was named with N. C. Munroe, A. H. Chappell, John B. Lamar, E. B. Weed, R. A. Smith and E. Graves as corporators, and when the board was organized on June 23, 1852, he was selected as the president, which office he held continuously until his death, a period of nearly thirty years.  In his office as trustee and president of the board he ever held a just appreciation of the proposed design of the institution, and gave his earnest support to all measures designed specifically to promote the same, and finding his highest gratification in its advancement and success in this particular respect.

"During this period he was from his universally acknowledged fitness for the position by a unanimous vote of his associates appointed attending physician of the academy, and in that position fully merited and retained, throughout this long period, the entire confidence of the trustees and officers charged with the internal management of the establishment.  To the duties of this office, always varied and often perplexing, he gave the most unremitting and assiduous attention, and they were discharged not only with scrupulous fidelity, but with the highest skill.  He had the highest regard for his responsibilities in the offices he held; and in the discharge of the various duties they imposed, he displayed eminent qualifications and fitness, great zeal, activity and talent.  His connection with the Academy for the Blind will be long and gratefully remembered by its friends and the people of the State, and the loss they have sustained in the death of one of their earliest, most constant and devoted friends, will be keenly felt and sincerely deplored."

The remembrance continues by speaking of the next useful contribution to his community made by Dr. Green:

…When the tocsin of war sounded and his fellow-citizens were summoned to the field in defense of right and country, although in feeble health and over age, he cheerfully abandoned the comforts of home and repaired to the scene of conflict, ministering to the wants of the sick and wounded, and continued faithful in this work to the end of the strife, at all times regardless of his own interest…

Dr. Green was much involved in the promotion of Georgia's secession from the Union.  And it seems, that from the very start of the war, he desired to be involved with the Confederate hospitals and helping the sick, wounded, and dying.  He wrote the following to Howell Cobb early in the war:  [Civil War Macon by Richard W. Iobst.  Pub. 1999, Mercer University Press.  Pg. 107.]

"I feel convinced that it is in my power to [be] of great service to hundreds of our poor sick & dying soldiers who are too often treated as if they were paupers instead of the owners of the medicines & supplies so munificently sent from Georgia for their relief."

Dr. Green was in control of the Macon hospitals by 1863.  Specifically, at least at some point, he was Chief Surgeon of the Floyd House Hospital.

The Georgia Academy for the Blind was even converted to a hospital at the persuasion of Dr. Green after Macon was inundated with hundreds more soldier patients after the Battle of Chickamauga.  By the close of 1863, Dr. Green was very pleased with how the Macon hospitals were being run.

There were challenges, tough ones, of course.  But even a year more into the war, when trying desperately to find more beds for needy soldiers, Dr. Green retains his passion and writes this:

"What shall be done with these men shall our brave sick & wounded lie on the floor or be turned into the streets – every one almost will answer no."

And later this:

"It is disgusting…to see the contemptuous indifference & even hatred that many of these wealthy foreigners & yankees & some disloyal men of Southern birth have to everything concerning the soldiers, hospitals &c.  I desire most sincerely to be able to learn some of these men their duties to the Govt. that protects them."

Through all this, the hospitals of Macon were still given high marks.

[Note:  If you have any interest in the history of Macon, or the Civil War and how it may have effected a city such, I encourage you to read the aforementioned Civil War Macon: The History of a Confederate City by Richard W. Iobst.  From inside front flap:  "Richard W. Iobst has produced an encyclopedic account of Macon, Georgia, during the years 1859-1865." – I personally find it to be an invaluable resource.]

Double Bereavement for Mrs. Robert Findlay

Resting not far from Clarissa Benton Jessop is her sister, Mary Benton Findlay. In the fall of 1913, Mrs. Findlay had to endure a turbulent season of life:

"DOUBLE BEREAVEMENT, AND IS ILL HERSELF

While the body of her daughter, Mrs. Richard L. Edwards, whose death occurred at Manchester Friday, lay at the home of Mrs. Wilson Edwards last night awaiting the arrival of relatives for the funeral that will take place today, Mrs. Robert Findlay, 109 Heard street, received a message of the death late yesterday afternoon of her sister, Mrs. Alfred Jessop, at Columbus. Mrs. Findlay is also critically ill.

Mrs. Jessop was for many years a resident of Macon, and her husband was in business here. She is survived by her husband and three daughters, Misses Edna and Edith Jessop, all of Columbus; and three sisters, Mrs. Robert Findlay, Mrs. Juliette DeVires and Mrs. L. C. Mallary, all of Macon.

The body will be brought to Macon, arriving here this afternoon at 4:50 o'clock over the Central of Georgia railway. The funeral will be held Tuesday morning at 11 o'clock from Christ Episcopal church, Rev. John S. Bunting, the rector, officiating. Interment will follow at Rose Hill cemetery." [Macon Telegraph (Georgia), 24 November 1913, pg. 6 -- Digital image viewed online at GenealogyBank.]

Mrs. Findlay's condition must have downgraded at least a bit from critical, as she lived about another eight years before joining her sister in Rose Hill Cemetery.

Cropped from a James Allen original.

Book about the Robert Findlay Iron Works in Macon:

A Remarkable Funeral: Burial of the Victims of the Woolfolk Tragedy

On this lot are the graves of nine victims of a kinsman who slew with an axe almost his entire family. This was Thomas Woolfolk, and the extraordinary crime was committed one night in August, 1887. He paid the penalty of his deed on the gallows.
I will not go into a lot of detail here about the Woolfolk murders. The subject has been written about and debated ever since its occurrence. Did Thomas Woolfolk really commit the crime for which he was hung? Countless articles have been written, as well as at least two books. The best article I have found is Bloody Woolfolk by UGA Professor Donald E. Wilkes, Jr. For something online, check out Bloody Woolfolk at Murder by Gaslight. The two books are The Woolfolk Tragedy: The Murders, the Trials, the Hanging & Now Finally, the Truth!* and Shadow Chasers: The Woolfolk Tragedy Revisited*, both by Carolyn DeLoach.

Following is a short video of the stones located in the Woolfolk family plot at Rose Hill. The plot is off of a narrow road on a grassy terrace not far from the Ocmulgee River. On the day of the funeral, thousands surrounded this little family plot. Following the video is a newspaper account of the funeral.

Macon Telegraph, Georgia
8 August 1887

A REMARKABLE FUNERAL

BURIAL OF THE VICTIMS OF THE WOOLFOLK TRAGEDY.

The Woolfolk tragedy, as might be supposed, was the absorbing question yesterday. The TELEGRAPH, containing the full story of the crime in its most minute details, exhausted its unprecedented extra supply of papers by half past nine o'clock, and it became necessary to print more. The streets were unusually full of people for a Sunday morning, long before breakfast time, and they could be seen in groups discussing the affair. There was little else talked about during the day by the men, and there seemed to be universal regret that young Woolfolk was allowed to leave the vicinity in which the horrible crime was committed. Those who were at the scene of the tragedy after he was carried off, are certain that had he been there when the shirt and drawers were drawn from the well, short work would have been made of him, as up to that time their was some little doubt resting on the minds of the people. This discovery was the turning point and decided his fate if they could have laid hands upon him.

...Undertaker Clay reached the house with the caskets about 12 o'clock and began at once to prepare the bodies for the grave.

THE PROCESSION
At six o'clock yesterday morning the remarkable procession began its long and slow journey to Macon. There were five hearses in line. The first contained the bodies of Pearl and Rosebud, the second Capt. Woolfolk and Mattie the baby, the third Mrs. Woolfolk, the fourth Richard and the fifth Mrs. West. The body of Charlie was placed in the undertaker's wagon and that of Annie in a carriage. Close behind these followed in carriages Mr. Ben Howard, father of Mrs. Woolfolk, his sons, Charles W. and John, and their families. Then came a long line of vehicles containing the immediate friends of the family, and to these were added many others as the procession winded its way toward the city. Almost at every turn of the road there were crowds of people who had gathered to see the cortege pass, and as it neard town there were many who followed on foot. Between twenty and thirty carriages were following the hearses as the procession passed through the city.

AT ROSE HILL
At the cemetery nearly two thousand people had gathered, hundreds having remained on the grounds since early morning. These people represented all classes.

The work of digging and repairing the graves was begun on Saturday evening. The lot is the new Woolfolk lot, to the right of Central avenue and about two hundred yards from the river bank. The grave-diggers were obstructed in their work by large rocks which they found as they went down into the earth. Although a large force of hands were at work the graves could not be gotten ready in time, and when the cortege arrived it was necessary to place the coffins on a vacant lot adjoining the Woolfolk lot. The nine caskets were placed by the side of each other; the five grown persons in black cloth-covered caskets and the children in white caskets. Around those the great crowd stood. The hill under which the lot was situated, was covered with people looking down upon the scene.

THE FUNERAL SERVICES
Shortly after 10 o'clock, Rev. I. R. Branham took his position between the coffins, and pausing for a moment for the noise of the crowd to be stilled, said he scarcely knew what words to utter that would be appropriate to the occasion...

He then offered up a prayer for the surviving members of the family, and for the one in prison, for "whatever may be his destiny, O Lord, prepare him for it."

Continuing his discourse, Dr. Branham said he knew of no words more fitting as a starting point than those which occur in the parable of the ten virgins, which will be found in the 25th chapter of Matthew: "For you know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh." This comes today with tremendous force this morning. Spread out before us are nine persons, from the infant to the grandmother, all of them stricken down without notice; aroused from slumber's charms without warning...

He spoke of the uncertainty of life and said the whole of figure and metaphor would be exhausted to give a description of the shortness of life...The missiles of death fly thick and fast around us.

He said a solemn duty must be performed by the law makers...In the administration of the law lies our safety and our hope...All over this land murder dips its hand in blood, the bullet and the knife are conspicuous, and blood flows. We must improve the terrible calamity of today.

The great concern for us all is to be ready. Christians, are all the hinderances that prevent your readiness gathered up and put out of the way? If the Master should come and call today are you ready to "rise and open to him immediately," would there be no trepidation, no hurrying to and fro, no confession and dismay consequent upon a complete surprise? Is there no duty due to God or your fellow man unperformed? ...No friend, no neighbor, exposed to eternal death unwarned? ...Is the doom of the soul forever sealed when the body dies? Oh! then let us rise from our apathy and plead with our fellow men, or with those who stand upon the brink of a fathomless abyss, with one foot uplifted, ready to take the step. Let us see to it that our daily accounts with God and our fellow men are balanced, and that we are ready at a moment's notice to make the settlement and go in peace.

...Turn the ear of your soul, and listen to the silent warning that comes from these coffins, and may the Holy Spirit indelibly impress the mute message upon your hearts and consciences! The speaker knew most of these who have been sent suddenly to their final account. Not long since it was his happy privilege to hear the beautiful story of repentance and faith in Christ from the lips of the oldest daughter. It is doubtless true that, though unwarned, they were ready....

A SAD SCENE
At this point of the services Mrs. Edwards, who was in Athens at the time of the tragedy, and who arrived yesterday morning on the 10:10 train from Atlanta, arrived at the cemetery. She went at once to the lot, and, threading her way through the crowd, uttered a cry as she beheld the coffins. Tears started to the eyes of the people as they saw her great grief and heard her lamentations over the still forms of all her father's family. Many turned away that they might not look upon a scene so sacred and so sad.

The close of the services were announced, and the great crowd filed by that all might see the caskets. For some time the family remained near them. Among these were the Howards, Mr. John Woolfolk, of Houston county, Messrs. James and Thomas Woolfolk, of Jones county, and Mr. Lowell Woolfolk, of East Macon, and their families. After this departure, the caskets were lowered into the graves as they were completed.

The nine graves were divided into two rows. In the front row rest Capt. Woolfolk, Mrs. Woolfolk, Richard, Pearl and Mrs. West; on the lower row, Charlie, Annie, Rosebud and Mattie, in the order named. The graves were walled up and cemented over nearly on a level with the ground.

During the day two heavy showers fell, but the rain did not keep the crowd away, and it was not until 5 o'clock, when the graves were finished, that the people ceased to visit the cemetery.

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