KRISTY DENSMORE/Staff

Wonder why Old Athens Cemetery is still on campus? Or why it shares human body counts with Oconee Hill Cemetery? Or perhaps you want to know where you can get the best spot for you and your future spouse. Read on as I share my grave travel accounts.

Old Athens Cemetery

(Jackson Street Cemetery)

Here lies Ann McDonald, wife of former Georgia governor Charles McDonald. Details on her death are hazy, but it is known that she died while visiting her sister in Athens. McDonald’s neighbors in the cemetery include the Carlton family and two former University presidents — Moses Waddel and Robert Finley. They are just a few of the 800 residents at Old Athens Cemetery, part of a reconstruction project by the University libraries and the anthropology department.

Created in 1810, Old Athens Cemetery is the oldest cemetery in town. Since there was no deed for the cemetery, a gentlemen’s agreement allowed the land to be transferred from Athens to the University, according to Janine Duncan, campus planning coordinator at the University. Duncan says in years past, the cemetery had been at the root of a battle between the University, who wished to demolish the land, and the city of Athens. The cemetery remained due to its status as a historical fixture.

“You have to look at what was done previously with different genealogy groups,” Duncan says, whose primary focus is cemetery preservation and stone analysis. “You have to look at records for a burial service, and if there was a service there is a chance they were buried here.”

The project, which began in 2006, has made 30 to 35 repairs, including one on Ann McDonald’s headstone. The marble slab is a fine finishing for a woman who’s interned there since 1834.

Oconee Hill Cemetery

Originally owned by the University, the cemetery was purchased by Athens in 1855, according to its website. Though the cemetery is only 156 years old, several chess piece headstones  among the wooded hills make this a place you don’t want to be caught at night.

Like its predecessor, Oconee Hill is home to members of the University, governors and past congressional members of Georgia. The bodies bind these two cemeteries together. In 1897, a fire broke out and headstones had to be transferred to Old Athens, while others were lost in the rubble. Because of this, there is no accurate number on the amount of people laid to rest in Oconee Hill.

Though there is no accurate count of the number of bodies in Oconee Hill, it does have a huge African-American population interned. An 1858 town hall meeting decided Oconee Hill would be the official black burial grounds, Duncan says — a tidbit that proves no matter how creepy Oconee is, it’s still rooted in the richness that is Athens.

Old Athens Cemetery stats:

Oldest burial: unkown
Oldest known burial with a headstone: CLEMENTINA GOLDING (1817)
Most recent burial: CLARISSA EVANS (1888)
Most recent burial with a headstone: ROBERT HENRY LAMPKIN (1869)