Magnolia Cemetery the Père Lachaise of Mobile, Alabama part two

Detail of a Marble Greek Revival monument erected to the memory of Henry Coldthwaite Judge of the Supreme Court of the state of Alabama who died in Mobile of Yellow Fever in 1847

This is part two of a five part series. The 19th century architecture of Magnolia Cemetery is amazing some of the styles represented here are Federal, Classical, Neoclassical, Neo-Renaissance , Greek Revival, Rococo Revival, Egyptian Revival and Second Empire. I grew up around Magnolia Cemetery and live down the street from it now and have a plot there. Although I'm not looking forward to being interred there. When it rains in Mobile this cemetery becomes a swamp! I have walked thru this lovely cemetery since I was age 9 and walk thru it a few times a week. I often take my dog Belle who I have had for 15 years. She loves sniffing around the Antebellum marble Tombs. This cemetery is mostly the resting place of 19th century Mobile's WASP community better known as White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. During Mobile's Golden period 1820-1860 many East Coasters Moved here in search of there fortune thru Slavery and the white gold of cotton. When looking at tombs in this cemetery most list the place of birth with many being from New York and Virginia. But the cemetery also has graves of Free-people-of-color, slaves, Jews, Creoles and European Settlers to Mobile. Please click on photo's to read the inscriptions.

Magnolia Cemetery was established in 1836 and is situated on 120 acres. From 1836 onward it served as Mobile's primary burial site during the 19th century. Magnolia contains more than 90,000 burials and remains an active, though very limited, burial site today. In the 18th century Mobile was a Creole city with French and later Spanish immigrants. Protestant English and American settlers began arriving early in the 19th century and Church Street Cemetery was established by the City of Mobile in 1820. Within a decade it became apparent that more land would be needed for burials. Like many coastal cities, Mobile was visited with yellow fever epidemics which killed thousands of men, women and children.




There had been a national trend to establish cemeteries away from crowded urban centers and the creation of Magnolia Cemetery in 1836 followed that trend. Its original 30 acre tract was outside the city limits but could be reached by carriage and later streetcars. In 1846 the city began to grant free burial plots within the cemetery to civic, labor, and religious organizations. The Coal Handlers Union, Colored Benevolent Institution Number One, Cotton Weighers Society, Draymens Relief Society, Homeless Seamen, Independent Ladies Mill and Timber Association, and the Protestant Orphan Asylum Society were among those organizations to take advantage of this policy. Members who might not have the money for a plot could be assured of a space with their membership dues until it was ended in 1873.




Although Magnolia Cemetery was city owned, no records of who was buried there were maintained by city employees until 1912. Prior to that it was up to the lot owner to know who was buried where since many graves were never marked. The cemetery grew in size over the years and now encompasses more than 100 acres. Some 100,000 are buried in Magnolia Cemetery although less than 90,000 are known since many rest in older unmarked graves.




By 1970 nearly 60% of the cemetery was abandoned and it had become extremely overgrown. In 1984 the Historic Mobile Preservation Society formed the Friends of Magnolia Cemetery as a non-profit corporation. The goals of the new organization included the establishment of perpetual care for the plots, cleaning up the cemetery and improving the existing plantings, improving maintenance, restoring historic monuments and ironwork, hiring of a superintendent for day to day operations, and surrounding the site with a contemporary iron fence conceived and designed by local architects Arch Winter and Thomas Karwinski. The efforts by the Friends of Magnolia Cemetery led to the cemetery being placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

Detail of a Marble Greek Revival monument erected to the memory of Henry Coldthwaite Judge of the Supreme Court of the state of Alabama who died in Mobile of Yellow Fever in 1847

Detail of a Marble Greek Revival monument erected to the memory of Henry Coldthwaite Judge of the Supreme Court of the state of Alabama who died in Mobile of Yellow Fever in 1847

Bird~Peace, messenger of God. The most common birds found on gravestones are doves

Bird~Peace, messenger of God. The most common birds found on gravestones are doves

Mortality. A draped or broken column represents the break in earthly to heavenly life. The draped arch also symbolizes mourning.

Dog~Loyalty, fidelity, watchfulness, and vigilance

I and Belle like to visit the Nott family plot. A beautiful tomb stone shows An angelic figure gazes upward at the four winged cherubs symbolizing the four Nott children who died in the Yellow fever epidemic of 1853. 1,331 Mobilions died that year

Sarah Alice, age 3, succumb to Yellow fever on September 15th. Three days later Emma, 10, died. Four more days passed and their year old brother Allen was gone, The following day their brother Edward was dead at aged 19.



As early as 1848 Dr Nott had written an essay theorizing that the disease was carried by insects such as mosquitoes. It would be more then 50 years before Dr. Walter Reed proved him right.



The Spaniel who vigilantly watched over the four Nott Children lost to Yellow fever, ultimately pined himself to death, Dr Nott memorialized him in cast iron and placed him at the children's feet.



Throughout the days of sickness the family dog had kelp a bedside vigil. With the fourth child's loss he pined himself to death within the week.

Dog~Loyalty, fidelity, watchfulness, and vigilance

I and Belle like to visit the Nott family plot. A beautiful tomb stone shows An angelic figure gazes upward at the four winged cherubs symbolizing the four Nott children who died in the Yellow fever epidemic of 1853. 1,331 Mobilions died that year

Sarah Alice, age 3, succumb to Yellow fever on September 15th. Three days later Emma, 10, died. Four more days passed and their year old brother Allen was gone, The following day their brother Edward was dead at aged 19.



As early as 1848 Dr Nott had written an essay theorizing that the disease was carried by insects such as mosquitoes. It would be more then 50 years before Dr. Walter Reed proved him right.



The Spaniel who vigilantly watched over the four Nott Children lost to Yellow fever, ultimately pined himself to death, Dr Nott memorialized him in cast iron and placed him at the children's feet.



Throughout the days of sickness the family dog had kelp a bedside vigil. With the fourth child's loss he pined himself to death within the week.

A beautiful 1853 tomb stone shows An angelic figure gazes upward at the four winged cherubs symbolizing the four Nott children who died in the Yellow fever epidemic of 1853. 1,331 Mobilions died that year

Sarah Alice, age 3, succumb to Yellow fever on September 15th. Three days later Emma, 10, died. Four more days passed and their year old brother Allen was gone, The following day their brother Edward was dead at aged 19.

A beautiful 1853 tomb stone shows An angelic figure gazes upward at the four winged cherubs symbolizing the four Nott children who died in the Yellow fever epidemic of 1853. 1,331 Mobilions died that year

Sarah Alice, age 3, succumb to Yellow fever on September 15th. Three days later Emma, 10, died. Four more days passed and their year old brother Allen was gone, The following day their brother Edward was dead at aged 19.

After the lost of the four children Dr Nott has 3 son's left James Deas, Henry and Josiah, Jr. Two out of the three left of Dr. and Mrs. Nott's sons were lost during the Civil War. Their joint monument features a relief of two swards surmounted by a wreath of mourning.

Eternity. An upside down torch represents the end of life.

After the lost of the four children Dr Nott has 3 son's left James Deas, Henry and Josiah, Jr. Two out of the three left of Dr. and Mrs. Nott's sons were lost during the Civil War. Their joint monument features a relief of three swards surmounted by a wreath of mourning.

Swords represent martyrdom. Crossed swords are often seen on the gravestones of veterans, especially officers.

Dr. Josiah Clark Nott died in Mobile on his 69th birthday March 31, 1873. He was buried between the two son's he had lost to war, and his four children lost to yellow fever. His wife died in 1883 and is buried beside her husband. There are no descendants of Josiah Nott. His only surviving child and namesake died a bachelor in 1891 and is buried in the family plot.

Draped Weeping Woman~Mourning, sorrow.

After the lost of the four children Dr Nott has 3 son's left James Deas, Henry and Josiah, Jr. Two out of the three left of Dr. and Mrs. Nott's sons were lost during the Civil War. Their joint monument features a relief of two swards surmounted by a wreath of mourning.

After the lost of the four children Dr Nott has 3 son's left James Deas, Henry and Josiah, Jr. Two out of the three left of Dr. and Mrs. Nott's sons were lost during the Civil War. Their joint monument features a relief of two swards surmounted by a wreath of mourning.

After the lost of the four children Dr Nott has 3 son's left James Deas, Henry and Josiah, Jr. Two out of the three left of Dr. and Mrs. Nott's sons were lost during the Civil War. Their joint monument features a relief of two swards surmounted by a wreath of mourning.

Marble relief of Angel holding a baby after Bertel Thorvaldsen (1768-1844) a Danish sculptor

Marble relief of Angel holding a baby after Bertel Thorvaldsen (1768-1844) a Danish sculptor

Garland or flower wreath Victory in death.

Mobilions loved lot's of ornate cast-iron are what we call "frozen lace" It was made locally but was also imported from New Orleans and the East Coast. It was placed on the fronts of grand mansions and well as fencing around Family plots  

The Rouse monument is a Neoclassical Greek Revival style monument with a classically robed mourning woman placed beneath a low profiled gable supported at the four corners by columns dating from the 1840's

Mobilions loved lot's of ornate cast-iron are what we call "frozen lace" It was made locally but was also imported from New Orleans and the East Coast. It was placed on the fronts of grand mansions and well as fencing around Family plots  

Monument for Eliza Bleecker.

Snake, hooped Hourglass Symbolizes eternal life - no beginning, no end.

Draped Weeping Woman~Mourning, sorrow.

Monument for Eliza Bleecker

Draped Weeping Woman~Mourning, sorrow.

Eternity. An upside down torch represents the end of life.

The Rouse monument is a Neoclassical Greek Revival style monument with a classically robed mourning woman placed beneath a low profiled gable supported at the four corners by columns dating from the 1840's

The Rouse monument is a Neoclassical Greek Revival style monument with a classically robed mourning woman placed beneath a low profiled gable supported at the four corners by columns dating from the 1840's

A Greek Revival Tomb with Classical Urn on top

A Greek Revival Tomb with Classical Urn on top

Lucy and Angel

Lucy and Angel

Mobilions loved lot's of ornate cast-iron are what we call "frozen lace" It was made locally but was also imported from New Orleans and the East Coast. It was placed on the fronts of grand mansions and well as fencing around Family plots  

Johnny being carried off by a Angel 1856

The Wilson family Mausoleum

The Wilson family Mausoleum

Draped Weeping Woman~Mourning, sorrow.

Beautiful Neoclassical Greek Revival cast-iron family plot fence

Mobilions loved lot's of ornate cast-iron are what we call "frozen lace" It was made locally but was also imported from New Orleans and the East Coast. It was placed on the fronts of grand mansions and well as fencing around Family plots  

Beautiful Neoclassical Greek Revival cast-iron family plot fence

A very old camellia tree over looks a family plot