Rose Hill Cemetery was established in 1840 and remains a staple piece of Macon history that draws in thousands of people every year to experience its culture, architecture, and historical ties to Georgia.
This burial ground was founded by Simri Rose, a 19th century newswriter who carefully designed and planned its landscaped layout.
While Rose Hill has evolved over the last two centuries, the architecture and landscape remain the same. It is neatly organized into neighborhoods, each neighborhood claiming its own narrative. Strangers Row, Oak Ridge, and Soldiers Square are just three sections of the 50-acre cemetery.
Strangers Row serves as a burial site for the unknown deceased, according to Kathleen O’Neal., who is the local historian and Historic Macon Foundation Tour Guide of the cemetery. Although they are strangers to many and do not have headstones, their presence will endure on the banks of the Ocmulgee River. They will forever be woven in the history of Macon, regardless of where they travelled from.
Oak Ridge, the historically black section where many enslaved individuals were buried, according to The Macon Melody. This section has many known families, such as the Hutchings family, who opened the Hutchings Funeral Home which is still operating over 100 years later in downtown Macon on New Street.
Soldiers Square is the burial site of the Confederate soldiers. There are over 600 Confederate soldiers resting there. The headstones are arranged in clean and neat rows, in contrast with the actual bodies, according to O’Neal. They do not share the same symmetry due to the overwhelming death rate of the soldiers.
“A lot of the movers and shakers and founders are buried there,” O’Neal said. Some of those are Ambrose Baber, Peter James Bracken, and several of the Allman Brothers.
Ambrose Baber, a medical doctor who died in 1846 at the age of 52 from the effects of his own medicine, according to Wikitree. His story has been engraved in the local history of Macon.
The founders of Southern Rock, four of The Allman Brothers Band members, have graves that are a main tourist attraction in Macon, according to O’Neal.
Peter James Bracken was heavily involved in the great locomotive chase and was the engineer of Western and Atlantic Railroad’s locomotive, “The Texas.” He was responsible for a fifty mile railroad freight that ran from Macon to Atlanta, according to findagrave.com.
Their stories live on the hills, dips, and monuments of Rosehill and are engraved in each and every stone. All of these figures make up the history of Macon and their graves can be found at this local cemetery.
