This is the stately plot of the Kenan family. Outside of the mausoleum, there are family members buried in the large circular plot. It is located in the Oakdale Cemetery. The winged cherub at the top of the mausoleum represents innocence.
Founded in 1852, the Piney Woods Primitive Baptist Church is located in the crossroads town called Rico, which now makes up the town Chattahoochee Hills. It has a mixture of box slab crypts, seashell-covered graves, field stone markers, and traditional late 1800s headstones.
The church moved from the site by 1856, but the cemetery remained active until 1900. One side of the cemetery contains burials with no markers. It’s believed they are for men and women born into slavery of the church’s founders and the town of Rico.
The seashell-covered graves were a Southern phenomenon. In the Christian tradition, they represent a person’s travels through life, and the final passage involves crossing water into the promised land. An article that provides further details can be read here.
Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964) was an American writer for her novels and short stories. Her final resting place is next to her parents in Memory Hill Cemetery in Milledgeville, Georgia. Despite being born in Savannah, Milledgeville was Flannery’s home. Her family moved there when she was fifteen and lived there until her passing at 39. Her childhood home and the family farm, Andalusia, still stand in Milledgeville.
Whenever I’ve visited her grave, there have been flowers and other mementos. When I took this photo, someone(s) had left behind coins as a sign that someone visited. The IHS symbol stands for Iesus Hominum Salvator, which means Jesus, savior of mankind, or it can stand for the first three letters of Jesus’s name, iota eta sigma.
Founded in 1860, New Park Cemetery is one of the early cemeteries in Fort Gaines, Georgia. The cemetery contains many examples of markers representing the years it’s been active. One of the more unusual aspects of the cemetery is that there is a Victorian gazebo built in 1880 that sits atop a Native American burial ground, believed to be at least 1000 years old. Like the Kolomoki Mounds, it is believed this was built by the Swift Creek and Weeden Island people.
