Historic & Unique because it is so old (1800)
By A Yahoo! Contributor, 7/23/08
I know that all cemeteries are "historic" by their very nature, but Magnolia Cemetery (named for its trees) is over 200 years old...by today's standards, a very old cemetery. Pre Civil War with many, many graves dated before 1850.
This place is rather large and you find your relatives and friends by street coordinates. My Garmin GPS has its streets on the mapping system. The cemetery closes the gates at 8:00 P.M. and during daylight savings time, you may have to hurry to get out of there before closing time (boo!).
Besides the run of the mill usual cemetery inhabitants (normal deceased people), there is a Spanish American War section filled with Augusta soldiers. There is a full Civil War section filled with both Union and Confederate soldiers. There are seven Civil War Generals buried here.
There are all sorts of famous people buried here besides the Generals:
There are Augusta mayors, legislators, physicians, relatives, families, the list goes on. As one walks and/or drives thru the cemetery, one can piece together the history of one family or several and/or the history of the city thru the births and dates of the deceased...just like any cemetery.
Augusta, Georgia has a glorious and storied history and Magnolia Cemetery is just one very historic place to experience some of it.
I visit it often. I especially enjoy visiting six nuns, lined all in a row, all named Sister Mary, with different middle and last names, buried from 1904 to 1982. They are located at the right hand far away corner on the same side as the entrance (next to the wall) of the cemetery and no one seems to care or visit these poor servants of the lord. I am not catholic, but that does not matter. Most of these nuns died over 80 years ago.
Perhaps if you get a chance to visit this historic and wonderful place, you will stop by and pay your respects to the Sister's Mary.