milledgeville family devoted to restoring Memory Hill Cemetery

MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. (AP)

Paul Campbell and his family love walking among the tombstones at Memory Hill Cemetery, burial place of author Flannery O’Connor and others, because the sacred ground contains much of the history of Milledgeville.

In honor of the city’s 200th birthday next year, the Campbells are restoring the sexton’s cottage at Memory Hill to its original condition.

“We chose to repair the sexton’s cottage here at the cemetery because this is the place where we feel you can really get a sense of the town’s history,” said Campbell.

Campbell and his wife, Lorene Flanders, along with the couple’s two children, Hart, 9, and Jordan, 4, have lived near the famous graveyard in the historic district of Milledgeville’s downtown area for 14 years now.

The Campbells have already started to paint and restore the old cottage and their findings are unlocking some of the mysteries from the area.

Campbell obtained permission to remove a section of the cottage that was added on in the early 1900s. He believes there are additional graves of former slaves from the Civil War era buried under the addition. He also believes the sides were made from the floor boards of a Methodist church built there in 1809.

The church, he believes, hosted an early conference by Bishop Francis Asbury, the founder of the American Methodist Church, in 1815.

And that’s only the beginning. Milledgeville citizens said the city’s rich diversity runs through Memory Hill.

“Many of Georgia’s state legislators and U.S. congressmen have been laid to rest here,” said Cathy Fuller, a member of the Friends of Baldwin County Cemeteries.

Buffalo soldiers and slaves who died before they could be freed can also be found among the oak trees and southern pines.

Christian ministers, town socialites, legislators and statesmen from across the state are also buried there, as well as the graves of patients who were once at Milledgeville’s mental hospital, one of the largest such institutions in the world at one time.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 27 2002. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry