Evergreen Cemetery

Evergreen Cemetery began as family plots for Tuscaloosa citizens in the mid-nineteenth century. An 1857 letter to the editor In the Tuscaloosa Independent Monitor described citizens' growing frustration with the maintenance of Greenwood Cemetery, leading many to “remove the remains of their friends” to the new cemetery, Evergreen. Evergreen was still referred to as the “new cemetery” over 30 years later in an article from the Tuscaloosa Times, which noted the incorporation of the Evergreen Cemetery Company and the election of its Board of Directors. Included on the Board were prominent Tuscaloosa citizens John Harris. A.B. McEachin, W. F. Fitts, Jr., and J.I. Hausman. In 1903. Dr. James T. Searcy deeded the cemetery to the City, and later, a three-acre addition was acquired from F.W. Monnish., Prominent citizens interred in Evergreen include Alabama Governors Joshua Martin and Henry Collier. Three University of Alabama presidents are buried in Evergreen: CSA General Josiah Gorgas, Burwell Boykin Lewis, and Richard Clark Foster. Amelia Gayle Gorgas, University librarian and postmistress for 25 years, is entombed in Evergreen. The main library at the University is named in her honor, the first building on campus to be named for a woman., Evergreen is the final resting place of CSA Brigadier General Sterling Wood and many other Confederate veterans. Dr. Lafayette Guild, Chief Surgeon and Medical Director of the Army of Northers Virginia, is buried in the cemetery. Beside the King family plot lies a small headstone memorializing Henry, who accompanied his master's body home from battle in 1863. William March, author of Company K and The Bad Seed was buried here in 1954., When Evergreen was first established, several families, including Snow and Somerville, constructed elaborate mausoleums. Vandalism and recklessness during the 1960s necessitated the removal of all but two of the structures; the King and Eddins edifices are the sole survivors. The name tablets for the lost mausoleums can be found in the ground where they once stood. Perhaps the most unusual epitaph belongs to Rufus Strickland; it reads “Hi. Thanks for stopping by.” Unusual for a burial ground so old, Evergreen remains an active cemetery and occupies approximately four city blocks. The City of Tuscaloosa is the custodian of Evergreen, whose rows of stone are a roll call of the families that built Tuscaloosa.