This is not a book review: this is a cry of astonishment. I will never read Oconee Hill Cemetery of Athens, Georgia, Volume 1, by Charlotte Thomas Marshall all the way through, but I will never stop consulting and dipping into it from time to time—frequently, no doubt. I cannot comprehend the mind that could accomplish this book. Charlotte Marshall had a lot of help and built on previous work, as she details in the seven pages of acknowledgements and thanks with which she begins the book. With all that assistance and inspiration from precursors, mentors, friends and husband, Charlotte Marshall has produced a prodigious tome, a veritable who’s who of the cemetery, published by the Athens Historical Society in time for its 50th anniversary. The book begins invitingly enough with photographs by Kenneth I. Storey, depicting stones, monuments and mausoleums, and then plunges into the deeps with a plot-by-plot census on the town side of the Oconee River, including the Colored Burying Ground, the burial ground set aside for employees and families of Athens Manufacturing Company, the Congregation Children of Israel Cemetery and the Pauper Burying Ground. Volumes 2 and 3 will catalogue the transriparian cemetery environs.

What could be duller and denser that a recitation of Stygian statistics? Why, all the living—marrying, birthing, working, moving, entrepreneuring, fighting, preaching, teaching—that all those people now sleeping on the hill accomplished while they were awake. The stats alone—the wife of, daughter of, grandson of with dates of birth, marriage and death—provide the record, but Charlotte and her enablers have enriched us far beyond the bare bones of the story. This book is fleshed out wherever possible with obituary references that bring the dead to life and make this a history not just of a cemetery but of a town.

Because there is no way to review this book, allow me just to indicate to you what it is and how it works.

Let’s just open it at random to, say, page 205 and let our finger fall upon Moss, Julia Pope 22 Mar 1842-11 May 1931 [called “Jule”; never married; traveled around the world several times. The Banner-Herald, 11 May 1931: “died this morning; principal of famous old Grove school here, taught many of the leading citizens of Athens years ago; became acutely ill a week ago; b. Cherokee Corner, Oglethorpe Co.—famous meeting place of the Indians which figured in the boundary line in a treaty between Indians and State; d/o [daugther of] John Dortch Moss, Sr. and Martha Strong Moss whose families have figured prominently in history of this section for a century; came to Athens as young girl and entered Lucy Cobb Institute; after graduation she became principal of Grove school; associated with her were Miss Susie Newton, a sister of Charles H. Newton of Athens, followed by Miss Mary A. Bacon, a well known Athens writer; funeral tomorrow at 5 p.m. by Dr. Lester Rumble from First Methodist Church of which she was a member for many years…”] So much of our history there.

There are thousands of such entries, and it is a giant, doorstop of a book, 620 pages with a price to match—$55. It’s not a purchase to be made lightly, more like an investment in history, and for the history of our town, it is simply indispensable. Anybody interested in Athens will want to keep this book nearby or hang out near the library. And indeed, pound for pound it costs less than a comic book, really. To complete this sales pitch, I might point out that this big compendium is available just in time for Christmas at ADD Drug Store in Five Points, the Athens Welcome Center on Thomas St., Aurum Studios downtown and Borders in Beechwood.

Pictures, in addition to those at the beginning, are scattered throughout, and at the back are a chronology of the cemetery, a collection of newspaper stories about the cemetery, an extensive bibliography and a comprehensive index of names. (My heart skipped when I found my own there, but it turned out to reference a review I wrote in Flagpole of Susan Frances Barrow Tate’s book Remembering Athens.)

Oconee Hill Cemetery of Athens, Georgia, Volume 1 is much more than a catalogue and more than a history: this book is a family bible for the city, whose past citizens are hereby rescued from anonymity and restored to permanence through these annals.

Pete McCommons

editor@flagpole.com