Kathleen O’Neal, a historian and a leader of Rose Hill Rambles, explores some of the lesser-known historical elements, people, and stories behind Rose Hill’s gates. O’Neal has many family members buried in Rose Hill and has been visiting the cemetery since she was in diapers.
She says the cemetery is full of individuals, some popular, some well-known in their time, and some not well-known at all, reiterating the importance of preserving and remembering local history and the lives and legacies of those who came before us. She recently shared some of the unique burials. O’Neal believes there is much to learn by looking closer at the people, the history, and the lived experience of those who came before us. Whose history and stories are not forgotten but rather hidden in plain sight on stones, monuments, and obelisks.
“I think what happens is families die out, descendants move away, and so those graves get neglected,” O’Neal says. “And there might be fascinating stories there, and I’m trying to find them for the rambles.”
1. A.E. Boardman
Arthur Edwin Boardman was born in Macon, Bibb County, on March 20, 1850. He studied at Troy Academy and began architectural drawing, railroad surveying, and engineering in 1870. Boardman was elected city engineer of Macon, but before he was an engineer, he was an artist. Boardman’s 1872 Map is a hand-drawn map of Macon that is revered to this day by local surveyors and is currently hung in the city engineering office.
“So a survey of downtown Macon that is prepared today will often reference to the map done in 1872,” O’Neal says.
The map noted many features, such as cisterns, wooded areas, the right of way, street names, residential homes, and areas. Boardman is also credited with creating Macon’s current waterworks system. In 1878, he designed a filtration system that purified water from the Ocmulgee River into drinkable water. This water system was so successful that Boardman was asked to design and build the water systems for cities like Tampa and Charlotte. In 1908, Boardman and his wife, Mary, moved to Europe so that he could pursue his passion for drawing full-time. After his wife passed away abroad, Boardman returned to Macon and continued to draw, eventually becoming president of the Macon Art Association. A.E. Boardman has been laid to rest in his family’s plot at the Rose Hill Cemetery.
2. Primus Moore
Primus Moore was a widely respected contractor and bricklayer with a reputation for being a highly esteemed citizen. Moore was born into slavery in 1829, and in the time of slavery, he belonged to a man named James Ayer, a contractor who taught him his trade. Moore worked for Ayer on most of his construction projects, including the Hay House, The Gresham House (now the 1842 Inn), and the Slate Houses, considered the earliest apartment buildings in Macon. Primus also completed the plasterwork on Macon City Hall, a building that’s been standing for over 187 years. Even after emancipation, Moore was paid to continue to do the plasterwork on City Hall annually, which is believed to be the first Macon Government contract awarded to a minority. Once Moore was emancipated, he started his own construction business and even built his home. His home still stands today on the corner of Spring Street and Riverside Lane. Moore had four sons: one physician, one doctor, one bricklayer, and one postal carrier. Moore was laid to rest in Oakridge Cemetery and is believed to be buried on the plot pictured above.
3. Oliver Hillhouse Prince
Oliver H. Prince was described as somewhat of a “renaissance man” and was actively involved in many different aspects of life in Macon. Prince was admitted to the bar in 1806 and then went on to have a successful law practice for the next twenty-six years. In 1822, Prince was one of the commissioners who selected the site and plated the streets of Macon. Prince also served in the General Assembly as a state senator in 1824 and served in the Twentieth Congress from 1828 to 1829. Prince was also instrumental in bringing railroads to Georgia and wrote the first significant law book, A Digest of the Laws of the State of Georgia, written by a Georgian. Prince retired from law in 1832 and focused on the new publication of his Digest. While on their way back to Athens on October 9, 1837, Prince and his wife, Mary Ross, were lost at sea off of Ocracoke Island, North Carolina, when their steam-packet boat entered the path of Racer’s Storm, one of the most horrific hurricanes of the century. Their children erected a cenotaph to honor Oliver and Mary Prince in Rose Hill Cemetery.
4. The Woolfolk Family
One of Georgia’s most infamous crimes occurred early on August 6th, 1887, in Bibb County, 12 miles West of Macon, between 2 and 4 a.m. Tom’s father, stepmother, six step-siblings, aunt, and family friend were all brutally murdered with an axe. At daybreak, Tom knocked on the door of Green Locket, a man who worked for the family and claimed a gang broke into his house, killing everyone in his family except him. When investigators arrived at the home, they found bloody footprints that all traced back to Tom. He also had specks of blood in his ears and a bloody handprint on his leg, and he showed no signs of grief or remorse. There was also no evidence of forced entry into the home, and nothing was missing. Tom also admitted to throwing his bloody clothes down a well, thus contaminating the water supply. After two trials and two appeals, he was found guilty and convicted of murdering his family. Tom’s hanging was one of the last public executions carried out in the State of Georgia. He was hung in front of a crowd of about 10,000 on October 29, 1890, in Perry, Ga. The Woolfolks were laid to rest in their family plot in Rose Hill Cemetery. Tom Woolfolk is buried near one of his sisters in Orange Hill Cemetery, Hawkinsville. Within recent years, two books have been published by Carolyn DeLoach that investigate the details of Tom Woolfolk and the Woolfolk family murders. The first is Shadow Chasers: The Woolfolk Tragedy Revisited, and the second is The Woolfolk Tragedy: the murders, the trials, the hanging, and the truth! In the second book, DeLoach explores the finding of new evidence, a diary belonging to Simon Cooper, a handyman who worked for the Woolfolk family.
5. The Gresham Family
John Gresham was a two-time Macon Mayor, a judge, a prominent city leader, and President of the Bibb Manufacturing Company. The Greshams lived in a beautiful Greek Revival home on College Street that still exists today, now called the 1842 Inn. The family also owned a plantation named Houston, located in the South of Macon. The bricks used in the Gresham Mansion were believed to be made on the Gresham Plantation. The 1860 federal census records eight Gresham slaves residing in Macon and forty-three at Houston. John and Mary Gresham had three children: Thomas, LeRoy, and Mary (Minnie). LeRoy was injured before the Civil War in an accident and seemed to be suffering from consumption. However, LeRoy kept an incredibly detailed diary documenting the succession, the war, his worsening health condition, and the fall of the Confederate cause. LeRoy’s diary, titled The War Outside My Window, was published in 2018 and is currently stored at the Library of Congress due to the book’s interesting point of view.
