Bobby's Botanical Walk

Without question Robert Tyre Jones, Jr.....Bobby Jones.....to his many fans was the first and only person to win the Grand Slam of golf in one year.  Add in the fact he designed the Augusta National Golf Course where the Master's Tournament has been held since 1934 and you realize his importance to our state.  

But maybe golf isn't your thing...maybe the history of the land where Augusta National is today does matter to you.  (For a brush up course you can read my article here......)

Did I mention Bobby Jones was a native Atlantan?

...and besides Gone With the Wind's Margaret Mitchell, Bobby Jones' grave at Oakland Cemetery is one of the most visited graves.  In fact, back in April when the Mister and I ventured to Oakland for the afternoon there were four others besides my husband wandering about trying to find the resting spot for one of golf's greatest players.

An information brochure I picked up at the cemetery's gift shop advised people from all over the world travel to Atlanta to visit his grave...the modest marker is adorned with golf balls and tees left by visitors as tokens of remembrance......and yes, the Mister.....and avid golf player....left his own remembrance. 

Considering the history of Augusta National where the land was once used as a nursery and the fact that Oakland Cemetery is park-like botanical garden I find it very fitting that in 1994 Mr. Jones’ family helped fund a botanical installation at Oakland.  

When you visit look for the markers along the walks approaching Bobby Jones' grave.  You will be able to find 18 different markers detailing 18 different trees, shrubs, and specimen plants.  These plants are found at each of the holes at Augusta National Golf Course.

I think it's a wonderful tie-in to Mr. Jones, the golf course, and the cemetery.   Information from Oakland Cemetery states.....Roses, perennials, and ground covers have been added, along with botanical identification markers for each.  Additional funds from the family provide annual private maintenance in the area.

Here is a list of each of the 18 markers with links to the botanical information.

1. Tea Olive

2. Flowering Red Dogwood

3. Double White Peach Tree

4. Flowering Crabapple. 

5. Southern Magnolia

6. Eastern Red Cedar

7. Pampas Grass. 

8. Caroline Jessamine

9. Carolina Cherry Laurel

10. Camellia

11. Flowering White Dogwood

12. Border Forsythia

13. Azalea

14. Chinese Fir. 

15. Formosa Firethorn

16. Eastern Redbud

17. Nandina

18. American Holly

An Oakland Story: Sarah Dye

I had a lovely dinner Wednesday night with the family at Six Feet Under on Memorial Drive overlooking Oakland Cemetery.   As we dined I keep looking out across the road at the tombstones, but there was no time to go walk among dead….

As we headed home I silently told the headstones I’d be back…..

Oakland  isn’t just a resting place for Atlantans.   It’s a historical time capsule of sorts.  

It’s a lovely park and garden.

It’s a place to reflect

It’s a place with great views of the city

….and Oakland Cemetery has great stories to tell.   I think that’s my favorite part….the stories.

One of my favorite stories involves Lot 428 in the original six acres of the cemetery belonging to the Dye Family.

The rain this week has certainly been welcome even with the consequences many have had to endure due to the fierce lightning and booming thunder.

July started off breaking all sorts of temperature records with several days of one hundred plus thermometer readings, and my yard was one crusty carpet where I couldn’t tell where the dust  left off and the brown dying grass began.

I’m not sure what the temperatures  happened to be during July, 1864 around Atlanta, but for those few citizens who didn’t leave the city before  the Union lay siege it was a hot place to be as the shells flew back and forth between the Union and Confederate positions.

Sarah Dye and her young children tried to escape the shelling by digging a hole in their backyard. 

It had been rumored Sarah’s husband…..John Dye…..was one of the best carpenters in the city.   He had built a home for his family at the corner of Ivy (now Peachtree Center Avenue) and Baker Streets.  

When we think of the Civil War we tend to group everyone above the Mason-Dixon Line as falling in line with the Union while those below the line were all Confederates.

Generally, this was true, but the lines did blur occasionally.   Sarah Dye was a known Union sympathizer.   According to the book The Historic Oakland Cemetery of Atlanta:  Speaking Stones by Cathy Kaemmerlen…..the “Southern Claims Papers”, issued after the war to help reimburse Southerners for their wartime losses, Sarah was a Union woman and against the war from start to finish.   She had made it public that she thought the war would ‘bring no good’.  She was labeled a Union sympathizer, even though her husband served in the Confederate army.  

However, regardless of Sarah’s beliefs and opinions of the war she found herself in the middle of the daily shelling….not only dodging Union shells but attempting to shield her family from Confederate shells as well.

At some point during the bombardment one of the children….a two year old boy named for his father….become ill and died.   

Sarah placed his body in a box and July 10, 1864 found Sarah crawling out of  the crudely fashioned bomb shelter in her yard and she began walking to Oakland Cemetery which in those days was outside of the city of Atlanta. 

Can you picture her walking down Atlanta’s dusty desolate streets strewn with items left behind by war refugees, craters fashioned by shells and other bits of war wreckage while cradling her dead child in her arms?   


Sarah was intent on giving her child a proper burial whether a war was raging around her or not.

She was stopped and warned to get off the road.   Finally, a man in a wagon who happened to be heading her way out of town allowed her to ride so she was able to get to cemetery a little faster.  Sarah placed her baby next his sister Mintory, who had passed away years before.    At some point….so the story goes she fell asleep on the grave and upon waking made the return trip to her home to care for the other children.

Today there are fourteen graves in the Dye family plot including Sarah and her husband John.   Family lore reminds visitors to skip the first step leading into the plot because it is said another baby was buried under the step in 1849.

I’ve written about Oakland Cemetery before at Georgia on my Mind here, and I’ve recently written a review for Six Feet Under over at Cooking With Cooper.

Join the Georgia on my Mind community on Facebook by clicking the “LIKE” button on the left sidebar.  I’m publishing all of my Oakland pictures there in an album!   You can tell me what you think!

Georgia's Civil War Generals

The men I’ve featured in my photo collage all have something in common as you can tell by my title……

They lived in Georgia….they were Confederate Generals…..and they all are buried at Oakland Cemetery.

Top row, left to right:   John Brown Gordon, Alfred Iverson, Jr., and Clement Anselm Evans

Bottom row, left to right:  Lucius Jeremiah Gartrell, William Stephens Walker

If you would like to find out more about each General you can access my article here.

Living Among the Dead

Oakland Cemetery---one of the quietest spots in downtown Atlanta yet full of living people during waking hours. During non-waking hours, well, who knows......

Six acres was set aside in 1850 for a quiet resting place for Atlantans known then as City Burial Place. Today the cemetery consists of 88 acres, and it is estimated over 70,000 people have been buried there. It is considered to be one of Atlanta’s largest greenspace areas, and green it is. In keeping with the characteristics of a Victorian cemetery the original citizens who owned plots and regularly visited deceased family members took great care to contruct a beautiful garden setting that is maintained today mainly by volunteer efforts.

The original six acres is very important to the city because it is the one spot in Atlanta that basically has not changed since the city burned in 1864.

This past Sunday Oakland held one of its annual events---a Victorian Street Festival. The festival is a fitting activity for Oakland because during the Victorian Era cemeteries were looked on as places that should be enjoyed by the living.

People used to take carriage rides and picnic among the gravestones and mausoleums and walk among the fancy ironwork fences so popular in Victorian Era cemeteries. However, you won’t find the ironwork at Oakland even though at one time there was quite a bit. It seems that during World War I, in a show of patriotism, the city of Atlanta removed all of the ironwork and donated it for the war effort.

Today people still visit for picnics, photography opportunities, and maybe even a game of Frisbee in Potter’s Field where there are no headstones to trip you up.

Looking at the layout of the cemetery it is easy to formulate facts and opinions regarding the evolution of Atlanta’s social history. There are distinct Caucasion, Jewish, and African American sections.

The Jewish section has been added onto like some of the other sections over the years and each section has its own little tale to tell. One part of the Jewish section dates from a time when Atlanta had a high number of Jewish immigrants. Due to their circumstances in their original country they wanted to preserve each inch of the land they could so this is why today you will find a part of the Jewish section with no walkways. The headstones are so close together there is simply no room to walk.

Another section, Potter’s Field, possible contains the remains of more than 17,000 people. Traditionally with a name like Potter’s Field you would expect to have only indigent people buried there. However, once all the lots were gone Atlantans still wanted to be buried at Oakland, and were willing to go to an unmarked grave by choice simply to have the privilege of resting within its confines.

The Confederate Section contains over 7,000 soldiers----3,000 of them are unknown and are guarded by the "Lion of Atlanta" marker. Seven members of Andrew’s Raiders made famous due to the Great Locamotive Chase rested for a time at Oakland, but were eventually removed to National Cemetary in Chattanooga Tennessee. During the Battle of Atlanta John B. Hood actually stood on one of the high hills within Oakland’s walls and observed the battle on July 22, 1864.

One section is titled Knit Mill simply because a hosiery factory was built nearby.

Oakland is known for having some of the most unique markers and mausoleum of any cemetery in the United States. The marker for one Jasper Newton Smith is particularly unique in that it contains a life size statue of Mr. Smith. During his life Mr. Smith was a real estate investor. Have you ever been to the Peachtree MARTA station? Go to the Carnegie Way entrace and look for a cornerstone. The cornerstone is from one of the buildings Mr. Smith owned. He had directed that the cornerstone never be removed from the spot. It wasn’t even though the building known as “The House that Jack Built” was finally taken down.

The mausoleum that contains Alfred Austell, founder of the Atlanta National Bank, is known today for the expense incurred in the 1880s compared to today……One source stated the structure cost $90,000 originally while this book stated it was $16,000. Either way that is a large sum of money for the 1880s. The first source stated the structure would cost around $3 million today.

The only mausoleum found in the African American section belongs to Antoine Graves.
One of the most amazing things about Oakland is that there have been recent burials there even though the last available plot was sold in 1884. It would seem many Atlanta families have held onto their prime real estate for quiet some time. The city also retained some ownership of various plots and occaisionally allows someone to be buried at Oakland. Maynard Jackson, former mayor of Atlanta, was one of those exceptions. He is actually buried within the original six acres which is quite a testament to how Atlanta has evolved with regards to race relations. Mayor Jackson is not the only mayor interred at Oakland. He joins 23 other mayors of Atlanta and 6 different state governors.

Find out more about Oakland Cemetery here, and discover other famous Georgians who are buried there.