Rose Hill Cemetery (Macon, Georgia)

Simri Rose, Ambrose Baber, Levi Eckley, and R. W. Willis were commissioned in 1836 to find a place for what would become Macon's third cemetery (Fort Hill Cemetery and Old City Cemetery were the first and second, respectively.){{Cite book|title=Rose Hill Rambles|last=Payne|first=Calder Willingham|publisher=Middle Georgia Historical Society|year=1985|location=Macon|page=x}} The committee decided to establish the cemetery outside of the city because the land there was less expensive.{{Cite book|title=Rose Hill Cemetery and the Ocmulgee Heritage Greenway: The Impact of Integration|last=Hoyt Wansley Jr.|first=James|publisher=University of Georgia|year=2000|location=Athens, GA|page=84}} As a horticulturist, Simri Rose was personally involved in deciding the location and type of trees and flowers. Rose Hill Cemetery was originally designed to be a garden cemetery with landscaping, similar to Mount Auburn Cemetery, as it was intended to function as both a cemetery and a local park. Dirt paths through the cemetery were intentionally wide enough to allow easy access for carriages. Two bridges were built across ravines to allow easy access to other parts of the cemetery.{{Cite book|title=Rose Hill Cemetery and the Ocmulgee Heritage Greenway: The Impact of Integration|last=Hoyt Wansley Jr.|first=James|publisher=University of Georgia|year=2000|location=Athens, GA|page=47}}

File:Rose Hill Cemetery, Ross lot, 1880s - DPLA - b9e544d969cd9c160ee45bf0b46846f8.jpg

The cemetery has one Catholic section for Saint Joseph's Catholic Church and seven Jewish sections: Hebrew Lot, Jew Lot, New Hebrew Lot, Polish Lot, Russian Lot, Sherah Israel, and William Wolff.{{Cite book|title=Rose Hill Rambles|last=Payne|first=Calder Willingham|publisher=Middle Georgia Historical Society|year=1985|location=Macon|page=13}}{{Cite book|title=The Jewish Burials of Macon, Georgia|last=Kaufman|first=Marian Waxelbaum|last2=Kaufman|first2=Gus Bernd|year=1997|location=Macon, GA|publisher=none|page=i}} Oak Ridge, a section within Rose Hill Cemetery that was created in 1851, is the final resting place for an unknown number of slaves.{{Cite web|url=http://wgxa.tv/news/local/a-piece-of-macon-history-will-soon-be-brought-to-life-at-rose-hill-cemetery|title=A piece of Macon history will soon be brought to life at Rose Hill Cemetery|last=Johnson|first=David|date=2016-09-28|website=WGXA|access-date=2019-07-23}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.macon.com/news/local/article87358287.html|title=Unknown, forgotten could be recognized at historic Macon cemetery|last=Dunlap|first=Stanley|date=July 2, 2016|website=macon|language=en|access-date=2019-07-03}} Soldier's Square holds around 600 Confederate troops.

Many factors contribute to the cemetery's change in appearance. Age and exposure to the elements weathered marble statues and tombstones. Most of the dirt paths were paved between 1927 and 1960. Overcrowding contributed to the change in appearance not only because more people were taking up more room, but because digging new graves would damage the roots of nearby trees.{{Cite book|title=Rose Hill Cemetery and the Ocmulgee Heritage Greenway: The Impact of Integration|last=Wansley Jr.|first=James Hoyt|publisher=University of Georgia|year=2000|location=Athens, GA|page=51}} A tornado on March 13, 1954, also uprooted many trees.{{Cite web|url=https://www.macon.com/news/local/article30141819.html|title=Tornado-ravaged obelisk repaired at Rose Hill Cemetery|website=macon|language=en|access-date=2019-07-03}} The addition of a railroad in 1881 cut off access to the Ocmulgee River and Interstate 16 added traffic noise.

The cemetery is part of a self-guided walking tour of Macon and is the site of the semi-annual Rose Hill Ramble sponsored by the Middle Georgia Historical Society.{{Cite web|url=http://www.historicmacon.org/rose-hill-cemetery|title=Rose Hill Cemetery|website=Historic Macon|access-date=June 29, 2019}}

==Notable interments==

{{Refimprove-section|date=March 2021}}

• Duane Allman{{cite book|url=|chapter=Allman, Duane #216 & Oakley, Barry {{sic}} #9272|title=Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons|edition=3rd|first1=Scott|last1= Wilson|first2=Gregory W. (forward)|last2=Mank|date=2016|publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc.|isbn=978-0786479924|oclc=948561021}}
• Gregg Allman
• Clifford Anderson
• Augustus Octavius Bacon
• Charles Lafayette Bartlett
• John Birch
• James Henderson Blount
• Peter J. Bracken – engineer of stolen The Texas locomotive in the Great Locomotive Chase
• Alfred H. Colquitt
• Philip Cook
• Alfred H. Colquitt
• Harry Stillwell Edwards
• Eugenia Tucker Fitzgerald
• Samuel Francis Gove
• LeRoy Wiley Gresham
• Thomas Hardeman Jr.
• Nathaniel Edwin Harris
• James Jackson – US Congressman, judge advocate in the American Civil War, and a chief justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia.
• Henry Graybill Lamar
• John Basil Lamar
• Buck Melton – Mayor of Macon, Georgia (1975–79){{cite news|first=Liz|last=Fabian |title=Melton lauded for helping shape 'the modern era in Macon' |url=http://www.macon.com/2014/03/06/2974795/former-macon-mayor-buck-melton.html |work=The Telegraph (Macon) |date=2014-03-06 |accessdate=2014-03-30}}
• Elizabeth Reed Napier (1845–1935) – inspiration for the Allman Brothers song "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed"{{Cite web|url=http://www.allmanbrothersband.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=FAQ&file=index&myfaq=yes&id_cat=1#q30 |title=Hittin' The Web with The Allman Brothers Band :: FAQ|publisher=Allmanbrothersband.com |accessdate=2008-11-20}}{{cite book | last=Patterson | first=R. Gary | title=Take a Walk on the Dark Side: Rock and Roll Myths, Legends, and Curses | publisher=Simon & Schuster | year=2004 | isbn=0743244230 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/takewalkondarksi00rgar }} pp. 42–43.File:Duane Allman and Berry Oakley Graves, Macon, GA, US.jpg
• Eugenius Aristides Nisbet
• Berry Oakley
• Oliver H. Prince
• J. Neel Reid
• Simri Rose – Rose Hill Cemetery's architect and designer
• George Washington Bonaparte Towns
• Edward D. Tracy
• Butch Trucks
• Phil Walden
• Blanton Winship – Major general of the United States Army, Judge Advocate General (1931–33), Governor of Puerto Rico (1934–39)

File:Simri Rose's grave.jpg|Simri Rose's monument

File:Rose Hill Cemetery Jone Family Plot.jpg|The Jones family plot

File:Robert Birdsong monument.jpg|Robert Birdsong's monument

File:Rose Hill Cemetery family plot.jpg|Ross/West family plot

File:Rose Hill Cemetery, Bond family monument, circa 1877 - DPLA - 287eba95345e3450951f6cb09149bdc1.jpg|alt=Bond family monument, circa 1877|Bond family monument, circa 1877

File:Rose Hill Cemetery, Central Avenue from gate, circa 1877 - DPLA - deae43930a2b6359cf4c0abd0f1441ab.jpg|Central Avenue from gate, circa 1877

File:Rose Hill Cemetery, Confederate section, circa 1877 - DPLA - 244ed65652784314f1bbb3656f3f2b48.jpg|Rose Hill Cemetery, Confederate section, circa 1877

File:Rose Hill Cemetery, Central Avenue, circa 1877 - DPLA - 44e3d97b7bda807da7a44e009c11feca.jpg|Rose Hill Cemetery from Central Ave., circa 1877

File:Rose Hill Cemetery, circa 1877 - DPLA - 54c8fcca5a175d6dac363577ffc2d204.jpg|Rose Hill Cemetery, circa 1877

File:Rose Hill Cemetery, visitors' spring, circa 1877 - DPLA - 08edbf1d4cec84ac811c583a2e9f4ce8.jpg|Rose Hill Cemetery, visitors' spring, circa 1877

• Riverside Cemetery (Macon, Georgia) – another historic cemetery immediately adjacent to Rose Hill

{{Reflist}}

{{commons category}}

• [http://www.rosehillcemetery.org/directory/index.php?action=page_display&PageID=5 Official History of Rose Hill Cemetery]
• {{Find a Grave cemetery}}
• {{GNIS|321911|Rose Hill Cemetery}}

{{Macon landmarks}}

{{National Register of Historic Places|state=collapsed}}

Category:1840 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)

Category:Cemeteries on the National Register of Historic Places in Georgia (U.S. state)

Category:Landmarks in Macon, Georgia

Category:Protected areas of Bibb County, Georgia

Category:Geography of Macon, Georgia

Category:Tourist attractions in Macon, Georgia

Category:National Register of Historic Places in Bibb County, Georgia

Category:African-American cemeteries in Georgia (U.S. state)

Category:Cemeteries established in the 1840s