logo for Linwood Cemetery

Established in 1894, Linwood Cemetery is located within the Pleasant Hill Historic District of Macon, Georgia and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Linwood Cemetery is the resting place for many of Middle Georgia's most prominent African-American citizens.

The cemetery is on the north side of Walnut Street between Pursley and Grant Avenue. A small creek divides area into an eastern and a western half. Visitors can access the western entrance from Walnut Street or the eastern entrance at the north end of Pursley Street.

Many prominent African-Americans are buried at Linwood including doctors, lawyers, bankers, businessmen, and beloved teachers. Many graves belong to veterans of World War I, World War II, the Korean Conflict, and the war in Vietnam. There may be as many as four thousand graves located here.

People Legacy has a list of over 200 people buried here.
The website Find A Grave has over 800 listings for Linwood.
The USGenWeb Project has an index of over 700 names and gravestone photographs.
The BillionGraves website lists over 160 records for Linwood Cemetery with photographs and GPS locations.

Graves

Here are the stories of some people resting at Linwood Cemetery:
Lewis H. Persley (1888-1932)
Persley was the first African American to register with the Georgia State Board of Registered Architects. He designed several structures on the campus of Tuskegee University. In Macon, Pursley Street is named for him.
Rodney M. Davis (1942-1967)
was a resident of Pleasant Hill who joined the Marines and fought in Vietnam in 1967. When a grenade was launched at his platoon, he used his body to absorb the blast and save his fellow soldiers. He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor and had a Navy ship named in his honor. His grave and a memorial are at Linwood Cemetery. Davis’ uniform and Medal of Honor are on display at the Tubman Museum.
Charles H. Douglass (1870–1940)
was a successful businessman who founded the Douglass Theatre in downtown Macon. He also owned the Colonial Hotel with a grille, cafe, and soda fountain for African-American travelers. His businesses included a beer parlor, wine shop, and the Middle Georgia Savings and Investment Company.
Jefferson Franklin Long (1836-1901)
Jeff Long taught himself to read and write. He was a tailor and owned a business in Macon. Long was eloquent speaker and urged former slaves to register to vote. In 1871, he was elected as a representative to Congress and was the first Black man to address Congress. Macon has a park named in his honor. A rocking chair owned by Long is on display at the Tubman Museum.
"Education is the only thing that will elevate us as a people, the only means by which we rise to fame and glory." -- Jefferson Franklin Long
The Compromise of 1877 ended Reconstruction in the South. The Fifteenth Amendment was no longer enforced and Black men lost thier voting rights. It would be 100 years before another person of color represented the people of Georgia.
Ruth Price Hartley Mosley (1886-1975)
became a registered nurse at a time when many Black women had little education. She owned a funeral home and worked in public health. Mrs. Mosley was a community leader and founder of a women's center named for her.
"You are as good as anyone. Never let the fact that you don't have anything keep you from achieving." -- Ruth Hartley Mosley
This video tells Ruth Hartley Mosley's life story through historic photographs.
George Vining (1921-1941)
lived in Pleasant Hill where he attended LH Williams grammar school and Ballard High School. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1940 and was sent to Pearl Harbor where he served aboard the U.S.S. California. He was the first person from Macon to lose his life in World War II. A total of 102 sailors died when their ship was attacked by the Japanese. George Vining was buried with full military honors at Linwood Cemetery.
Cleopatra Love (1894-1982)
Cleopatra Love was an educator and advocate for African American history. As a girl, she attended Green Street School and Ballard High School. Her mother was a dress maker for Macon's wealthy upper class. Miss Love attended Atlanta University and Morris Brown College.
  She taught English at Atlanta’s Booker T. Washington High School. Later she taught Black history at Florida A & M and Fort Valley State College. After she retired from teaching in 1955, she lived in her family’s home on Monroe Street in Pleasant Hill.
Minnie Lee Smith d. 1956
was a public school teacher who founded the Beda-Etta College which served Pleasant Hill students from 1920 to 1955. Her sisters Beda and Etta Smith are also buried at Linwood Cemetery.
Ozzie Belle McKay (1906-2004)
McKay was a community leader and founder of the Federated Girls Club. Miss McKay was instrumental in getting Black police officers put in charge of patroling Macon's Black neighborhoods. Professionally McKay was an agent for the Atlanta Life Insurance Company. This Black-owned business gave African-Americans the opportunity to work in financial services. The owner, Alonzo Herndon, was a noteworthy businessman in the Atlanta area.
Jerry B. Davis (1909-1972)
Sergeant Davis was the first Black soldier be awarded the Legion of Merit. He was wounded while fighting German forces at the Battle of the Arno River in Italy. The Medal was pinned to his uniform while he was recuperating in a hospital. When he returned home, he sold war bonds to support the war effort. You can see the Legion of Merit Medal on display at the Tubman Museum. His grave reads Dynamic Hero
Eustace Edward Green (1845-1931)
Dr. Green was born in NC and moved to Macon to practice medicine. He obtained degrees from both from Lincoln University and Howard Medical College. Dr. Green and his wife were both advocates for African-American education and taught a young Henry Rutherford Butler who later became Georgia's first African American pharmacist. Dr Green's influence led Butler to establish several professional organizations for Black physicians.
 Dr. Green lived at 353 Madison Street in Pleasant Hill and is buried in Linwood Cemetery.
John T. Shuften (1863-1916)
Dr. Shuften who lived in Pleasant Hill was married to Olivia and had a son named Charles Shuften also here at Linwood. Dr Shuften is a younger relative of JT Shuften the noted publisher. The elder J.T.Shuften was the editor of the South's first Black-owned newspaper (1865) the Colored American, which later became the Loyal Georgian. He was also a barber and a lawyer.
  J.T. Shuften wrote an exposé on the political changes in the South after emancipation and the great betrayal of the Republican party called "A Colored Man's Exposition of the Acts and Doings of the Radical Party South from 1865 to 1876". The article is still available and gives an interesting view into troubles faced by a free but uneducated population in post-war South. see Library of Congress link.

Carrie Hawkins (1874-1968)
lived on Roy Street in Macon. Mrs.Carrie Hawkins is the mother of Lemuel Hawkins who is one of four Negro league baseball players who were honored with plaques at Luther Williams Field. He was the star first baseman for the Kansas City Monarchs who won the Colored World Series in 1924. Lemuel Hawkins was killed by a stray bullet during a robbery in Chicago. Mrs. Hawkins asked that her son's body be returned to Macon for burial.
John Henry Walker (1872-1924)
was a prominent business man, philanthropist, and member of the Scottish Rite.
Albert C. Howard (1910-1999)
graduated from Ballard Normal School in 1928 and attended Morehouse College in Atlanta. He was an industrial arts teacher in the Bibb County school system for 37 years before retiring. Mr. Howard was active in community service for many years into retirement. He served as treasurer of Tremont Temple Baptist Church.
Mattie Hubbard Jones (1878-1975)
was the chair of the Red Cross Auxillary and an outspoken advocate for civil rights. Jones was also the founder and director of the Pleasant Hill playground that bears her name. The playground was the center for many community events, festivals, and field days with organized sporting events. The playground was known for its competitive tennis program.
C.W.E. Dyer (1893-1968)
Crawford Wilfred Ernest Dyer was the founder of the St. Luke's Hospital for Black-Americans in Macon, Georgia. Also for his many years of hard work and dedication to the Boy Scouts of America, Dyer was awarded the Silver Beaver. He was the first African-American in Bibb county to earn the award. Dr. Dyer was president of the Macon Academy of Medicine and Dentistry; he was honored by the Medical Association of Georgia for 50 years of continuous service in the medical profession and he served for many years on the Board of Directors of the Booker T. Washington Center in Macon.
Paul Duval (1863-1938)
founded a popular upholstery business in 1883 "Paul Duval & Son" that remained in business for over a hundred years in Macon. His great-grandson, Dr. Thomas Duval, talks about the history of Macon's Pleasant Hill neighborhood in this video.
J.S. Williams Sr (1875-1949)
Joshua Sloan Williams Sr was a medical doctor at Saint Luke Hospital in Pleasant Hill.
J.S. Williams Jr (1921-1997)
"Dr JS", as he was known, was the president of the local NAACP chapter in 1955 when the Georgia state attorney general tried to revoke licenses of teachers who were NAACP members. Dr Williams succesfully fought that challenge.
Herman Marlowe (1897-1950)
Marlone was a Navy veteran of World War I and was Macon's first Black florist.
Lewis H. Williams
In 1872 Williams began teaching Black students in the basement of the AME Church on Cotton Ave supported by the American Missionary Association. Also taught at the Academy for the Blind. The elementary school on Pursley Street in Pleasant Hill is named for him.
Lewis H. Persley (1888-1932)
Persley was the first African American to register with the Georgia State Board of Registered Architects. He designed several structures on the campus of Tuskegee University. In Macon, Pursley Street is named for him.
Robert Lee Smith (1880-1964)
Robert Lee Smith was Macon's first Black attorney. He graduated from Ballard Normal School in Pleasant Hill and worked for the Pilgrim Health and Life Insurance Company. Smith worked in the office of attorney E.L.Wheaton until he passed the bar exam. He was president of Smith-Cain Realtors and a trustee of the Steward Chapel AME Church.
Captain Pierce Brunson (1917-1987)
was elementary school teacher and principal at Maude C Pye Elementary School. Brunson attended Morris Brown College and Atlanta University. During World War II, he served in Australia with the US Army's Transportation Corps. After the war, he returned to Macon to teach at Ballard-Hudson School.
Leola Hubbard
graduated from Ballard Normal School in 1911, was inspired by her aunt to study medicine at Meharry Medical College in Nashville.
Walter T. Reid (1865-1944)
graduated from Ballard and continued his education at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina. He had a 31-year career at the US Postal Service, and was president of Business League of Macon. Reid also served as chairman of the board for the Middle Georgia Savings and Investment Company.
Francis Raymon "Red" Bradley (1910-1957)
Red Bradley was born in South Carolina. He gradulated from Morris Brown College were he was a star on the basketball court. He was also reknown as a "fire-ball" pitcher for minor league baseball.
 After three years in the U.S.Army, he came to Macon, married Lillian Reid, and was elected Physical Education Director for Bibb County Elementary Schools. He was a member of Washington Avenue Presbyterian Church.
Roland Ross Hawes (1878–1927)
Dr Hawes earned his doctorate at Meharry Medical College and became Macon's first AA dentist.
Richard Eugene Hartley (1901-1952)
Hartley was the first husband of Ruth Hartley Mosley. They were married in 1917. He was a widowed Macon Socialite and the owner of a bar. The Prohibition Amendment of 1918 put him out of business. He went into business in the Central City Funeral Home (Randall Memorial Mortuary).
William Gaines (d: 1921)
Reverend Gaines was the chairman of the Bibb County Negro Committee. He organized a Liberty Bond rally to support the 1918 war effort.
Lucein Hayden White (1869-1954)
Lt. White was a buffalo soldier in the 10th Regiment and served during the Spanish American War.
 His father, W.J.White was co-founder of the Augusta Institute, which later became Morehouse College. Lucien White became associate editor and assistant business manager at the Georgia Baptist Printing and Publishing Company where he taught young men about the publishing business.
Dr. J Garfield Kyles (1881-1959)
Dr. Kyles was a pharmacist and a community leader. His pharmacy, located on Cotton Avenue, also served as a store and a soda fountain. Many of his patients came from Dr. Dyer of St. Luke's hospital. He was a member of Tremont Temple Baptist Church.
Rev Peter G. Appling Jr. (1885-1948)
Peter Appling was a loved and respected teacher who taught at several schools. On his draft card, Appling listed his occupation as "preaching and teaching".
  Rev. Appling was the Dean of Central City College, a private school for colored students established in 1899 by the Missionary Baptist Convention of Georgia. Peter Appling served as the principal of Hudson High School. Today Appling Middle School in Macon is named in his honor.
Carolyn McKinney Jackson (1905-1994)
Mrs. Jackson attended both Fort Valley State College and Atlanta University. In her 42-year professional career with the Bibb County Board of Education, she served as a teacher and later as a principal of Green Street School.
 Mrs. Jackson was a member of Tremont Temple Baptist Church where she was on its Trustee Board and was a founding member of the Macon chapter of The Links women’s volunteer service organization.
Sophia Ephriam (d.1948)
This grave is marked only with the last name and date. Records indicate the first name and correct spelling of "Ephriam". If you know any more, please write to the address below.

Tour

Here is a Video Tour of Linwood Cemetery led by George Fadil Muhammad.

Clean-up

Volunteers from the community as well as the local youth chess club help out on Saturday mornings from 9am til noon.
Recent work has focused on removing invasive Mimosa plants.

History

This plot of land was the site of an old Macon hospital until 1894 when J.W.Cabaness and Walter Lamar founded the cemetery for Macon's Black population. Adjacent to the property is small cave that was used by a pre-Civil War brewery. This map shows where the old brewery was located in relation to the cemetery and the present-day highway. There is still a street named "Brewery Lane" on the other side of I-75 near the Army Reserve Center.

Map tour of historic points in the Pleasant Hill neighborhood


Location

Linwood is one mile from historic Rosehill Cemetery and Oak Ridge Cemetery where people of color were buried in the days before emancipation. Macon's Old City Cemetery is three miles from Linwood and contains some of the oldest graves in middle Georgia.

Directions to Linwood Cemetery


Sources


Cemetery Preservation


Books on Cemetery Preservation


Contact

This page is the product of independent research and information from the above listed sources.
To add information to this page, or correct any errors, please e-mail: "linwoodmacon@protonmail.com"


Disclaimer

Linwood Cemetery is owned by the Macon Cemetery Preservation Corporation.
This webpage is not affiliated with, nor funded by, that organization.





updated September 2023