The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-11-07
MOBILES OLD RAVEYARD,
 A POINT OF HIST ORIG INTEREST
SOME OF THE GRAVES DESCRIBED AND SOME or THE N0TABLES WHO SLEEP IN THE FAMOUS OLD CEMETERY ARE RECALLED-CITYs HIS
 TORY IS THEN RECORDED

on October 8. 1S1s. Just a week later october 15. the captains wife died, one may surmise, from grief and shock. On the same stone Is version of an often quoted obituary verse:
 I am not dead. but sleeping here.
 Prepare for death and and I follow Dn, me-" onsa tombstone to the memory of Charles Hsnford, .who, departed ,this life in iss7. I ind stiii another Arrangement or the same idea in verse: Keep not for me ye standing by, As you are now so once was l.
 As am now so you must be,
 Prepare for death and follow me. Upon the headstone which marks the spot where rests William Augustus Cox Is engraved picture of fre engine Number 3, of which company the de- ceased was member It is really e fine piece of engraving and gives an excellent idea of the appearance of the hand engines which were thought to be wonders of efficiency at that time. 1850.
 A Pathetic Incident.
 Near the northeast corner of the graveyard is curious double Krotto made by the order of an aged woman known to memory as Mother Will iams The story. as told to Mir. Butt many years ago. is that when tho wo- mans husband died she would not con- sent to be ,separatd from him, and caused double vault to be built be- meath the ground. Tn one of these his remains were sealed and in the other which was reached by steps, the wiodw spent tho greater part of her time day and night until at last her mind be- came so deranged that she was taken from her living tomb . raving maniac, only to be returned to 1t soon after wards. q corpse.
 Vandals have broken open both of these vaults and now the bones of the occupants are exposed to view. In the northwestern corner of the plot are also two brick vaults which have been opened by impious hands, exposing the skeletons of those who were buried there.
 It is observed that the Masonic lots in the old graveyard are cared for, though the Odd Fellows have a reserva- . ton there which is sadly in need of at- tention.
 A handsome marble monument marks the spot where rest the ashes of Ar mand P. Pfister for many years Grand Secretary of the various Masonic bod les, who died in 1851, The lot in which 1t Is situated is carefully tended.
 The tomb of Don Miguel Esiava, A.. nancial secretary for the Colony of Mo- bile. under Spanish occupation, is near the eastern entrance from Church street. A number ot members of the Eslava family are there buried In vaults of masonry built in the Spanish fash ion. irregular in height length and width.
 Mr. Butt found. beneath grass. young mulberry trees and weeds. the grave ot a minister of the gospel whom he had known in boyhood and had regarded as almost a saint The good man has been long dead. and seems to be nearly forgotten by those among whom he worked during the latest years of his life. There are those buried in the old graveyard who lived to see the flags of four nations flying over Mobile. At the time the ground was deeded to the city Fort Charlotte still stood where BienvIlle had built his Fort Condo, for. according to Mir. Hamilton. that Colon ial fortihcation was not demolished un- til lS21-2. The same authority proves quite conciusively that Mobiles first graveyard was somewhere near our St. Emannel and Theatre streets" In Co., lonial Mobile he says: Tt may be In the street, it may be oy'some home, Hes the dust of Ferdinand. the last French cure of Mobile.'
 The Confederate veteran. October edi- ton. in an article on the centennial of Admiral Raphael Semmes. said that hero of the confederacy was buried in the Catholic cemetery at New Or leans. This Is an error. as has since been pointed out by other publications; for the grave of the Admiral ts in the Cath ollie cemetery at Mobile and Is not far distant from the place where. be- meath a modest and simple monument the poet priest. Father Ryan. rests from his walk through the valley of silence"
 General Braxton Bragg lies buried with many of his comrades in "Confed- crate Rest" Magnolia cemetery. on beautiful hillside overlooking the city.
 But little attention had been paid to