Roswell's Historic Presbyterian Cemetery

Roswell's Historic Presbyterian Cemetery. . By 1841, the Roswell Presbyterian Church established this cemetery some 300 feet behind their sanctuary. At that time, Atlanta Street did not exist. Its first internment occurred in 1841, and the cemetery has been owned and maintained by the Roswell Presbyterian Church since that time. It continues to be an active cemetery with burials in family plots and dedications in the Memorial Garden. The original boundaries of the cemetery appear to be much as seen today., More than 200 graves exist in this active cemetery. Most are in family plots. You can find herein the graves of many of Roswell's founding families including the Kings, Dunwodys, Smiths, and Pratts. You can find the grave of George Napoleon "Nap" Rucket, Roswell's Mayor in 1935 and 1936, but better known for his professional baseball career. Nap pitched his entire career with the Brooklyn Dodgers, beginning in 1907 and ending in 1916. Look along Oak Street for local heroine and mill worker Frances "Fannie" Whitemire, who during Roswell's occupation by Union forces during the Civil War, saved the Presbyterian Church's silver communion service by hiding it under her quilting scraps., Civil War veterans interred here include the King brothers, Captain Thomas E., killed in the Battle of Chickamauga, and Colonel Barrington S., who fell at Bentonville, N.C., and Major Henry M. Dunwody who fell at Gettysburg only two months after joining the Confederate Army. Turner Goldsmith Greer joined up in 1862 and fought at Cumberland Gap, Vicksburg, Lookout Mountain, and Chickamauga before being captured at the Battle of Jonesboro during Sherman's March to the Sea. He was imprisoned for the remainder of the war at Johnston's Island near Sandusky, Ohio. After the war, he studied medicine and served as one of Roswell's few physicians until his death in 1911., (captions) , The original Roswell Presbyterian Church still stands today on Mimosa Boulevard. Built in 1840, it is Roswell's oldest standing public structure. Organized on 20 October 1839, the church's first members included representatives of the founding families including the Kings and Hands; Dunwodys, Bullochs and Elliots; and Smiths and Magills. Dr. Nathaniel A. Pratt, who moved here from Darien, Georgia, served as its first minister. (Photograph courtesy of the Roswell Historical Society), Unknown graves in the southern part of the cemetery are marked with simple marble headstones., Frances A. Whitmire (1834-1911) circa 1865 (Photograph courtesy of the Roswell Presbyterian Church), Located near the unmarked graves at the southern end of the cemetery, the grave of Willie Oleva Covington (1878-1936) illustrates how doing genealogical research using only census records can sometimes be deceiving. Next to her grave stand the gravestones of five children Willie bore between 1902 and 1911. Only one of those children lived more than a year. None appears in any census record; yet, there they lie, a testament to one women's heartache., In the southern section of the cemetery, simply, uninscribed marble headstone mark a group of unknown graves. In 2010, a ground penetrating radar survey, conducted along the sidewalk on Oak Street, 20 feet south into the cemetery, recorded 18 unmarked graves. Two of these graves are believed to be those of Elizabeth Ann Smith (1831-1915) and Helen Zubly Smith (1841-1896), daughters of Archibald and Anne Elizabeth (Magill) Smith, one of Roswell's founding families. Neither daughter ever married, and both lived out their lives in their family home. The home is now one of Roswell's historic house museums., Family records indicate that their nephew Arthur William Smith began the process of ordering gravestones in 1920; alas, the task was never completed. (Photograph courtesy of Archibald Smith Plantation Home)