| The People in Maple Hill Cemetery--continued | |
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Maple Hill Cemetery is the oldest and largest cemetery in Alabama. If you stroll the grounds, you may find some of these famous and infamous people, a few animals, beautiful monuments, and several mausoleums:
Special Sections of the Cemetery
1. Potter's Field is an area set aside for the burial of paupers and unidentified persons. It is full and no longer used.
2. A Hebrew Burial Ground was opened by the city in 1873 along California Street section of the cemetery.
3. The Catholic Burial Ground is located just east of the Hebrew Burial Ground.
4. The Garden Area along Kingsbury Avenue was developed by the Monte Sano Garden Club in 1949.
5. A Meridian Marker in the cemetery is the point from which all land in the northern half of Alabama is measured. Thomas Freeman surveyed Madison County and the boundary between Tennessee and Alabama.
Man's Best Friend
1. Pepe (ca. 1959-1975) was a Mexican Chihuahua. A small, flat stone along the Girard Street side of the cemetery marks his resting place as the beloved companion of the Edward Rolfe family.
2. Mickey (129-47) was John Lee Robinson's dog and is buried with him in his mausoleum near the corner of Girard Street and Kingsbury Avenue because "my dog stuck by me all his life, and now I'll stick by him."
Mausoleums
1. Mary S. Bibb (1816-1835) was the wife of William D. Bibb, son of Governor Bibb. Mary died three months after her wedding and legend has it that she was entombed sitting in her rocking chair. Hers was the first mausoleum in Maple Hill and was designed by architect George Steele.
2. The Burritt Mausoleum was erected in 1880 for Dr. Amatus Burritt. His son Dr. William H. Burritt (1869-1955) built a home on Round Top Mountain in 1936 and willed it to the city upon his death. Burritt Museum became Huntsville's first museum. Dr. Burritt's ashes are in the Burritt Mausoleum.
3. Albert Russel Erskine (1871-1933) was an industrialist and president of the Studebaker Corporation from 1915-1933. The Hotel Russel Erskine was named for him. He donated the Erskine Addition to Maple Hill in 1918 and the stone entranceway in 1916 in memory of his mother, Sue Ragland Erskine.
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