Mission Statement: To preserve
and maintain Linwood Cemetery
as a historic and cultural site of
importance to the city of Columbus
and its citizens, to assist the city of
Columbus in restoring, preserving,
improving, maintaining, and
managing Linwood Cemetery, and
to educate the public with respect
to the cultural and historic values
of Linwood Cemetery, and for other
educational and charitable purposes.
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Linwood Cemetery was begun in the 19th
Cemetery when the skill of a stone carver was a lifetime occupation. The
town of Columbus was established in 1828 and the grave stones and
monuments in Linwood reflect the stone carver’s personal touch for the
first fifty years. Four of the five men who signed their work had their
businesses in Columbus. Three other stone cutters, or sculptors, each
spent over 35 years working in the marble yards. All were Irish.
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The two earliest carvers who signed stones were
Patrick Adams and John Madden. Adams arrived by 1832, and was a
tradesman who had contracts with Columbus council. He laid bricks
for sewers and built the New City Market with carving grave
markers as a skill. Madden arrived in Columbus with his entourage
of seven stone cutters in the early 1840s and soon joined forces
with Adams. The two men signed monuments together. |
A Madden stone
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In the mid-1850s two new marble works were begun, one by
Thomas Kenny and the other by Henry McCauley. Kenny was 63 years old,
and brought with him 3 sons and numerous others stone cutters. There are
several signed monuments in Linwood Cemetery by Thomas Kenny and his son
George.
Click on picture to view stone's signature.
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Click on picture to view stone's signature. |
Henry McCauley was 28 when he came accompanied by several other stone
cutters who lived in boarding houses. He was active until his death in
1880. He was a true artist and is the local carver who left behind the
most museum quality stones and monuments. He met an untimely death and
his grave stone was lovingly carved and signed by Thomas Grier, the only
signature by Grier in the cemetery. Grier held the job of Assistant
Marshal in town, and it is assumed he was also a devoted sculptor in
McCauley's marble yard.
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Linwood Cemetery is proud to have one stone signed by the famous Robert
E. Launitz of New York, one of three of his works known to be in
Georgia. It was his designs sent to the marble works through catalogs
that gave patterns and ideas to the local carvers. There are other
signed 19th century monuments in the cemetery including
Cary of Boston, Goddess of Baltimore, Gow of Augusta, and Casoni and
Isola of New York.
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