The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-11-07
BY DAVID HOLT.

Mobile, Nov. 6.--tSpecial l--Stnce the city began It's paving ventures in that
 neighborhood there has been some ag- itation in favor of extending Church
 principal residence Street. through the old Grave Yard.
 Naturally, those who own lots in
 Mobiles oldest existing cemetery. or who have relatives buried there. pro- test against the idea Of disturbing the reufains Of those who rest there. The lproposai tos rem eve the dust of those buried in the Old Graveyard to Mag nolia. the Catholic Cemetery, or some met with an Immediate public veto. even though 1t was proposed to turn the four acre tract into c public park. which would change the entire char acter of the neighborhood, or at least three sides of the enclosure.
 My attention was first directed to the
 old Graveyard several years ago. when I was comparative stranger in Mo-
 bile. by that eminent Shakespearean
 actor, scholar and lecturer. Frederick Ward, who told me that on his earlier
 visits to Mobile he had often visited
 the place and had spent many hours
 beneath its trees in solitude, study and contemplation. It was well kept in those days. though now the place shows signs of neglect and decay.
 The remains of many who were Buried there during Athe later years of It's use aas q cemetery have been re- mover. and 8 few of the graves that re- main show the care of some loving hand. but for the most part Nature has been allowed a free hand in the dec. oration of the graves and has covered them over with tangles of weeds and tall grass to which the cypress vine
 with It's bright red star petaled trum- pets lends symmetry and color. Even at this late day of the year the frost has not touched the wild flowers that grow in that protected place.
 As it Is oNw.
 few days ago. in company with Mir. Cary Butt, a member of the Iberville
 Historical Society, I made an explora- ton of the old Graveyard. The high brick wall which once surrounded it has been pierced in several places to
 make a highway for pedestrians. There is no keeper employed now, and the solemn place Is often desecrated by the
 dopraved. Empty whiskey bottles by
 the dozens may be seen along the paths and beside the graves. Tales are told of wild orgies held at night beneath it's magnolia trees. To the north of the site are handsome Government Street homes. On the west is a negro church, and most of the other houses immediately surrounding 1t are occu- pied by negroes. The odor of garlic. from where, perhaps, some Creole cook was making a court bouillon was wait ed across tho enclosure as we entered, and later l detected the memory dis turbing odor from 'parching'' coree. Though the Old Graveyard was open cd about the year 1918. there are tombs there which bear an earlier date. These In many instances mark places where
 lie remains removed from the spot where the Cathedral now stands, north
 of Claiborne. between Dauphin and
 Cont Streets. which. according to the
 historian, Peter J. Hamilton, was Mo-
 biie's second burying place. An exam
 ination of the older headstones showE
 that many of those who died here be-
 tween the '2os and the '70s were na-
 tives of Virginia. the Carolinas and
 Maryland; and. further, that their de-
 scendants were proud of the fact. for
 they mentioned it in the inscriptions.
 One of the most interesting of the
 monuments tells the story of the death
 of a young man from wounds received
 volunteer in the Greek War Ills name was Stephen Hopkins Clark. and he died
 in Florida in July. 1887. at the age of
 22 years. The gravestone, a square
 block of marble, was erected several
 years later by the boy's father. who
 laments that the high hopes of youth and the expectations of friends are
 thus blasted forever" Another, 8
 broken slab of brown stone, was
 erected by the crowd" in memory of
 James Bernard Buckner, a young man
 who died here in 1917 at the age of 2s
 years. He was a South Carolinian, and
 he must have been an all-'round good
 fellow for the crowd' had inscribed
 upon the stone:
 "A wits feather and a chiefs 8 rod: An honest mans the noblest work of
 God"
 A sad story of three deaths is told
 upon one small marble slab. Capt.
 John connolly aged 2s. and his 3-year-'
 ola son. were drowned in Mobile Bay