March 1 - April 30, 2011 Group Tours

$10.00 per person.  No charge for escort or driver.

Pick up your step-on guide at the 1889 Gate House for a tour of this beautiful cemetery, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. The guide will point out interesting features of the cemetery history and landscape and tell fascinating stories of people buried here as you meander through the park likesetting, which was designed by 19th century landscape architect, Calvert Vaux, co-designer of Central Park in New York City.

Your guests will step off at two sites, where they will be able to stroll around the area, take pictures, and hear about interesting monuments and stories in close proximity.

First stop: an authentic Civil War earthwork, a large earthen fortification constructed for the city’s Macon Volunteers as a point of lookout and defense in 1864. On and around this site are buried -

• heavyweight boxing contender Young Stribling (“King of the Canebrakes”) and
• John Hope, (“Mr. Hurricane”), best known as the dean of meteorologists at the Weather Channel.
• Many people from the antebellum era including Confederate officers, such as Col Isaac Hardeman and 12^th Alabama Infantry Captain Robert Emory Park
• Lucia Griswold Conn Hardeman, who marched on Sherman to plead for the release of her captured bridegroom
• Sophia Lewis, who was born into slavery and died during the Great Depression, and is buried with a prominent white family because she was so beloved by the children for whom she cared.
• Ellen Griswold Smith Hardeman, 19^th century newspaper editress
• Also in this location, the American Legion lot is the resting place of veterans of many wars, including Joseph N. Neel, scion of a prominent local family, who died serving in World War I.

Second stop: the monument and final resting place of William Fickling, “Father of the Cherry Blossom Festival.”  A prominent Macon realtor and civic leader, Mr. Fickling propagated, planted and donated thousands of Yoshino cherry trees to his fellow citizens and the city, ensuring its designation as the Cherry Blossom Capital of the World.

Schedule a time for your group (10 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.) for a 1 ½ hour tour by calling Suzanne Doonan at 742-5328 or by writing to her at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it