The Old City Cemetery in Tallahassee, Florida
The Old City Cemetery
Address:
400 West Park Avenue
(WGS84, 30.442685,-84.28647,15)
Tallahassee, Florida
USA
32301-1416
Hours:
Sunrise to Sunset
This is the oldest public cemetery in Tallahassee with an estimated 1,540 interments. The last plot was sold in the 1920s (or in 1902 according to Florida Public Archaeology) making this site full.
The entire location is about ten acres in total.
Local cemeteries can be considered useful in understanding modes of architecture, material culture, community history, and design. It can point towards a city or individual’s economic stature. It is, in essence, an outdoor museum. Many early markers were made of wood before eventually being made in marble. Sometimes they were ornate, other times they have ties to the classical.
As so many people who founded Florida as an American territory/state are buried here, it is considered a place of statewide significance.
Rubbings are not permitted in the cemetery as the older graves are difficult to maintain. The stones are fragile/non-durable because of the age and/or environment.
The cemetery is cared for by the City of Tallahassee and the Freinds of the Old City Cemetery volunteer group. They clean graves and research the history of those buried in the Cemetery.
Social Media:
Contact:
Phone: 850-545-5842
(for general Tallahassee governmental real estate)
Parks and Rec: 850-891-3866
The current pathway follows the old indicator between the “white” and “black” sections of the cemetery.
The above-ground tombs of John Lang and the R.A. Shrine family stand out in the cemetery. While above-ground tombs are common in areas where swampy lands make them necessary, these conditions don’t exist in Tallahassee.
While the west side (where many black people are buried) looks empty in comparison, it is completely filled with graves. Many black families had grave markers made from wood or cast iron that have not survived.
History
Territorial Period (1829-1840):
The Cemetery and its boundaries were established in 1829 (CE) as a burial place for all residents of Tallahassee by the Florida Territorial Council five years after the city itself was founded as the capital of the Florida Territory. The site was chosen as it was outside of the city’s boundaries—on the far side of a two-hundred-foot-wide clearing. This clearing surrounded the town to protect it from attacks from Native Americans. It is thought that the site was chosen because people had been using it unofficially as a burial ground, although some early Tallahasseans are buried several hundred feet east of the site. Official Records of the Territorial Council placed it on the end of Two-hundred Foot Street (later renamed 400-foot Boulevard and now Park Avenue). Public cemeteries with park-life features had come into vogue during the Industrial Revolution (1760-1820-40) due to public health concerns. Before that (from the end of the Roman times to 1800 CE), burials took place in churchyards.
Plan of Tallahassee (1840) by Charles Hutchinson, whose brother is buried in the Old City Cemetery. Source: Florida Memory.
Many Florida pioneers and their slaves are buried in the cemetery. The contemporary laws required that African Americans (free and enslaved) be buried in the western half of the cemetery while whites were to be buried on the eastern side. Most of the early graves were marked with wooden head and footboards that have deteriorated. During this time, Tallahassee could still be considered a “frontier” town, and the residents made do with what they could easily source. The oldest surviving burial in the cemetery is Daniel Lynes (1792-1829). Originally from Connecticut (but was a merchant in NYC) who died in 1829 while staying in the south for his health. His family imported his stone gravemarker from the North—an expensive practice.
Residents were often upset with the unkempt appearance of the cemetery during the Territorial Period. Extant newspaper accounts bemoan the rough nature of the site and note that cattle and hogs ran through the graves. In 1834, a writer to the local paper’s editor wanted the City Council to provide a one-horse hearse to replace “the custom of bringing the coffin in a rough cart.” The same writer bemoaned the occasional accident when people’s caskets were lowered into the ground: “very insecure and objectionable manner of lowering the silent tenant to his last sad dwelling, by merely slipping ropes beneath the coffin. This practice must always result in distracting the attention from the solemn services of the grave, in exciting painful anxiety for the living and the dead, and sometimes in accidents agonizing to the mourners and appalling to the spectators.”
City Acquisition (1840):
In 1840, the City of Tallahassee acquired the cemetery. It was the only public burying ground for the City’s residents but not the only cemetery in town as St. John’s Episcopal Cemetery was established in 1840.
One of the burials is of Henry Hutchinson, who was buried on July 17, 1839, with full military honors. Henry had joined a group of men who had set out in pursuit of Seminoles who had killed Green Hill Chaires’ wife and child (Hannah Averitt and Sarah) in the Second Seminole War. Henry was later shot and killed by a companion during the fighting. His brother, Charles Hutchinson, wrote letters to his family in New York in which he described the cemetery and his brother’s grave. Charles talks about the creation of streets that separated the City’s Cemetery from St. John’s Episcopal Church’s graveyard. Charles included a hand-drawn map of the location and talked about how George Proctor helped him place a headboard and footboard on the grave. He also notes that his brother’s grave is across the street from “Mrs. Gamble,” one of the first buried at the new Episcopalian cemetery, which is good as the grave is now unmarked. The mention of Proctor, a free man of color and master carpenter, is of note as Proctor left Tallahassee to make his fortune in the California gold rush in 1849. His death in California resulted in his family back in Tallahassee being sold into slavery to pay off his creditors.
Thomas Brown (1785-1867) is buried here as well. He was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, and was a member of the Virginia State Legislature before moving to Florida. He opened a hotel in Tallahassee, known as the Brown's Inn in 1834. The hotel was also known as The City Hotel (1839) and The Adelphi (1840) before being operated by Brown’s daughter, Mary Archer. Archer operated the hotel as The City Hotel (1870-1874) before selling it to Tallahassee merchant Willian P. Slusser. The hotel was renamed The Morgan Hotel (1884) before burning down in 1886.
Thomas Brown was a member of the Whig Party and was a delegate to the Florida State Constitutional Convention from Leon County (1838-39). He later became the only Whig Governor of Florida (1849-1853).
Pictures:
Governor Thomas Brown (c. 1849). source: Florida Memory
Letter (1853) from Governor Thomas Brown to a group of students at the University of Virginia. The students had written to him asking if they could come down to fight the Seminole Tribe. Brown responded to tell them he was not authorized (as governor) to organize a military force. The Second Seminole War had ended in 1842, but infrequent conflict occurred between the Seminole Tribe members and Settlers. Chiefs (like Billy Bowlegs) resisted removal from their lands, often fighting in the swamps of Southern Florida. These occurrences received national attention. source: Florida Memory
Governor Thomas Brown and his daughter (c. 1856). source: Florida Memory
The Morgan Hotel (c. 1885) one year before it’s destruction. source: Florida Memory
Yellow Fever (1841):
A virulent yellow fever epidemic swept through Tallahassee in 1841, from May to October. The epidemic killed anywhere from two hundred (200) to four hundred (400) people in the city, a significant number as the city’s population was estimated to be around 1,600 people. The Yellow Fever was first reported in the gulf cities before traveling to Tallahassee. Entire families could be decimated in a short time. It affected everyone from former Governors to poor farmers.
Many of the dead were buried in unmarked graves, but some have headstones. Mary Ann Scott and Rebecca Scott died a few days apart and are buried in a walled enclosure.
The graves of Mary Ann and Rebecca Scott, Old City Cemetery in Tallahassee, Florida
The fourth territorial governor, Robert Raymond Reid, died of the fever in July along with his daughter and granddaughter but he is not buried in the cemetery. Another person who died was Isham Green Searcy (unknown - 1841), the Tallahassee Postmaster (1826-1840), Adjutant General of the Florida Militia (c. starting 1826), and head of the local Free Mason Lodge (Lodge 1, 1829-1832). His grave is unmarked but presumed in the cemetery.
The city passed new regulations, which included a new way to organize plots to create order. This was called the ‘Ordinance for the Establishment and Regulation of a City Burying-Ground’ and was passed in August 1841. Whites were buried in the eastern half whilst the enslaved and free people of color were buried in the western section. These sections were to be subdivided into religious areas, although not much is left of these designated plots. It also designated how records were to be kept (status, name, age, occupation, birthplace, date of residence, date of death, and manner of death, race). If any person broke these new ordinances or purposely damaged the property then: “Any free person, who shall wantonly destroy or damage the tombs or fences of any of the burial grounds of this city, shall, on conviction, pay a fine of twenty-five dollars, and if the party so offending be a slave, be condemned to receive not less than 10, nor more than 39 lashes.”
Late Antebellum Tallahassee (1841-1861):
James T. Archer, Attorney General for Florida. Source: Florida Memory
The period between the Yellow Fever epidemic and the Civil War was mostly concerned with the Third Seminole War (1855-1858), the admittance of the State of Florida into the Union (1845), and the founding of the Florida State College for Women (now FSU) (1851).
The Archer family is buried in the Old City Cemetery. Colonel Hugh Archer (1796-1858) a Speaker of the Floria House of Representatives and Florida Comptroller, and James Tillinghast Archer (1819-1859) a U.S. State Attorney and Secretary of State for Florida.
John Pope Duval (1790-1854), brother of Territorial Governor William Duval, moved to Tallahassee in 1827 after serving with Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Robert Butler, and Richard Keith Call during the Revolutionary and post-Revolutionary periods. He moved to Texas in 1836 only to move back to Tallahassee to serve under Governor Richard Call as the Secretary of the Territory.
Also of note, the City was (and is) proud of the cast-iron fences found in the cemetery. These fences became popular in the United States during the mid to late 1800s. The Perez-Brokaw plot has a lovely example of an elaborately decorated cast-iron fence. The Brokaw family owned a livery stable business across from the Old Capitol and were able to build the Brokaw-McDougall House on North Meridian Street.
The Perez-Brokaw plot with the cast iron fences.
The graves of Dr. William Waddel (1807-1843) and David C. Wilson (1804-1871).
The grave of Martha Herring (1833-1857)
Civil War (1861-1865):
Major General David Lang, c. 1870. Source: Florida Memory
Abraham Lincoln’s ascension to the Presidency in 1861 created more tension with the politicians of Florida. The Tallahassee Floridian and Journal’s headline upon the outcome of the Presidential race read “Lincoln is elected. This is the Beginning of the End.”
Florida secessionists were backed by wealthy planters, fearful of their loss of wealth/power and slave insurrections. On January 10, 1861, the delegates of Florida voted to secede (62 to 7) causing Whig Unionist, Governor Richard Keith Call to say, “You have opened the gates of Hell, from which shall flow the curses of the damned which shall sink you to perdition.”
Florida did not have battles like other Southern states, the only one of note to Tallahassee would be the Battle of Natural Bridge (1864). Nevertheless, the state’s politics and peoples were in shambles due to death, destruction, and economic instability.
The cemetery was home to Union casualties (black troops) as well as some Confederate casualties and soldiers. The twenty-one (21) Union troops, mostly unidentified, were buried in the South-West quadrant. The one hundred eighty-six (186) Confederate troops were buried here originally, although some were moved after the war. Records of the confederate troops’ burial and the upkeep of the graves were done by the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC); Their original records started after the war are now in the Florida State archives. They compiled information from the Cemetery’s original register (sadly lost in a fire in 1914 that consumed the caretaker’s shed). UDC also noted that the Union soldiers were black men that were killed in the Battle of Natural Bridge. Some of the Union soldiers were later moved to the National Cemetery in Beaufort, South Carolina.
One of the Union soldiers buried here is Edward Hays (1821-1866), who was a member of Company E, 2nd Regiment, US Infantry.
Also buried in the cemetery is Major General David Lang (1838-1917), who joined the Confederate Army at the beginning of the Civil War. He was in charge of the Florida Brigade (which fought at Gettysburg). He surrendered with Robert E. Lee at Appomattox. Returning to Florida he served as secretary for two Florida Governors.
Turn of the Century (1866-1913):
An 1875 photo of the Old City Cemetery, facing South. Source: Florida Memory
The end of the Civil War created a new opportunity for regrowth. Florida’s first black U.S. Representative was elected in 1870 (Josiah T. Walls) and the first time Florida’s votes caused issues in a Presidential Election occurred in 1876. The idea of Florida as a vacationing spot for the winter months took hold in the 1870s.
Judge Alfred LePaire Woodward (1807-1882) is buried here. He moved to Florida from South Carolina. As a lawyer and delegate to the first Florida Constitutional Convention in 1838, he helped to draft the Florida Constitution. Woodward Avenue downtown is named in his honor.
The Reverend James Page c. 1870. Source: Florida Memory
The Reverend James Page (1808-1883) has the distinction of being the first ordained black minister of Florida. He was born into slavery in Virginia and moved to Florida with John Parkhill in 1828. While at Parkhill’s plantation in Wakulla County, Page formed his first congregation which is thought to be the oldest black congregation in Florida. After the Civil War, Page moved to become the pastor of Bethel Baptist Church (1865-1870). He later became involved in politics, serving as a delegate from Leon County to the Republican Convention in 1867, becoming chaplain to the Florida Senate (1868-1870), and a member of the Leon County Commission (1869-1870). In 1872, Governor Ossian Bingley Hart appointed him as Leon County’s Justice of the Peace. He is buried in the Old City Cemetery and over 3,000 people attended his funeral.
Thomas V. Gibb was a cofounder of the State Normal College for Colored Students (now FAMU). Source: Florida Memory
James Diament Westcott III (1839-1887) was the Attorney General of Florida (1868) and a Florida Supreme Court Justice (1868-1885). He left $60,000 (roughly around 1.6 million in a contemporary exchange) to his alma mater, the West Florida Seminary (the current Florida State University).
Henry Noel Felkel (1850-1897) was Superintendent of Saint Augstine’s School for the Deaf and Blind. He established a school at DeFuniak Springs and was the first principal of Leon High School in Tallahassee.
Thomas Van Rensselaer Gibbs (1855-1898) was a Florida State Legislature Representative from Duval County. He also was the founder of Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (then called Florida State Normal Industrial School) by introducing a bill for its establishment in 1887. His current headstone was erected by the General Alumni Association of FAMU in 1951.
For information about the grave of Elizabeth Budd-Graham, rumored witch, click here
World War Years (1914-1945):
Charles Rollins. Source: Florida Memory
The years between 1914 and 1945 were tumultuous in Tallahassee. There were two World Wars, economic depression, a housing boom (and bust), the adaption of automobiles, a visit from Al Capone, and the first movie theater. Six hundred (600) men were drafted from Leon County to fight in WWI and thirty-nine (39) died.
Robert Berry Gorman (1837-1919), a Tallahassee native was Mayor of Tallahassee (1888-89, 1898-1902) and the Postmaster of Tallahassee (1893-97). Gorman was also a Confederate Veteran. His exact burial location is not certain but his son is buried in the Gormon plot (block 22, via the Cemetery map) and that plot has seven unmarked graves which could include Robert Gorman, his wife, and his parents (his father, William P. Gormon, also Tallahassee Mayor, died in 1842).
A year later, John G. Collins (1855-1919) the founder of the Tallahassee Democrat Newspaper, and Charles H. Rollins (1832-1919) a farmer, landowner, and emancipated man died.
In 1924, the City of Tallahassee celebrated a “Centennial Celebration” for a week. There were several parades down Monroe Street with many parties and dances in town. In 1940 First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt came to town at the invite of Senator Claude D. Pepper. Senator Pepper wanted Roosevelt to give the commencement address at FSCW (now FSU). Her speech can be read at the Florida State University Archives.
Crowds watching the Centennial Parade on Monroe Street, November 10, 1924. Source: Florida Memory
The American Legion float in the Centennial Parade, November 10, 1924. Mrs. Floyd Jones is Miss Liberty, sitting in the car. Source: Florida Memory
Group portrait of dancers, Centennial Week of 1924. Source: Florida Memory
“Uncle Sam” leads the Color Guard for the Centennial Parade, November 10, 1924. Source: Florida Memory
Evelyn Welch, the Centennial Queen of 1924. Source: Florida Memory
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was greeted by the Moor family at the airport. Beth Moor, to her left, helped Senator Pepper arrange for her to come to Tallahassee. Source: Florida Memory
Samuel Mason (1845-1925), a laborer and freed slave is buried at the Cemetery as well as Frederick Towle Myers (1854-1927), the President of the Florida State Bar (1908). Also, Lewis Washington Taylor (1865-1931), an educator, jeweler, and community leader is buried here. He taught at Centerville School (Old Lincoln High School) to black children and tutored white children. His house is part of the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
Fred Henry Davis (1894-1937), a WW1 veteran, County Prosecutor (1919-20), State Representative (1921-27), Speaker of the State House (1927), State Attorney General (1927-31) and State Supreme Court Justice (1931-37), is buried here. Davis is the first and only person to hold positions in all three branches of government in the State.
Nathan Benjamin Young (1862-1933), was the second president of the FAMU. In 1923, when he was dismissed by the Florida Board of Control, the students staged a year long protest. This is the first protest of note to occur on a black land grant college campus in America. Under Young’s hand, FAMU grew from a small nursing school to a major university.
Segregation was the decree in Tallahassee, and the Cemetery was not exempt. In 1937, the city ordered that there could be no more black people buried in the cemetery unless they could show the title to family lots in the cemetery. This led to Greenwood Cemetery being established, in which most black citizens of Tallahassee were buried after 1937.
Lieutenant John Kent Johnston in his army uniform c. 1917. Source: Florida Memory
John Proctor, the son of George Proctor who left for the California Gold Rush in 1849, is buried here in the Proctor plot. After his father failed to return home, his debt was settled by selling his family. John was bought by the druggist Matthew Lively until 1865. He was active in politics during the Reconstruction period of Tallahassee. He served in the Florida House of Representatives and the Florida Senate. He died in 1944, just before his 101st birthday.
Nathan B. Young, the second president of FAMU. Source: Florida Memory
By the time American entered WWII in 1941, Tallahassee had been preparing. Sites around town had been converted for soldiers whilst students and residents had been saving up tin and bacon fat for the war effort. Leon County had processed around eight thousand (8,000) registrations for military service, and half were called up. Around eighty-six (86) people lost their lives fighting. The famed 99th Fighting Squadron, also known as the Tuskegee Airmen) trained at Dale Mabry Field in Tallahassee. They were the first all-black fighter pilot unit in the United States.
John Kent Johnston (1887-1941) was a First Lieutenant during World War 1. He served in France with the American Expeditionary Forces (A.E.F.) in France. After the war, he became a doctor and helped to establish Tallahassee General Hospital. He’s buried in the Old City Cemetery. Francis William Lowry (1923-1945) was a Second Lieutenant during World War 2 with the Marines. He was killed during the Battle of Iwo Jima. His father, Colonel Dexter Lowry is also buried in the Cemetery.
John E. Proctor c. 1939. Source: Florida Memory
The end of World War II to 1990:
The end of World War 2 saw the transformation of Leon County’s economy from agricultural to industrial. The population grew as more people settled in Florida for the sunny climate.
Mary Welford (Mamie) Wilson Gwynn (1867-1954) is buried here, she was the May Queen in 1884. Also buried here is John Gilmore Riley (1857-1954) who educated himself when it was still illegal for any black person to be educated in the South. He began teaching at Lincoln Academy in 1881, which was one of only three schools in Florida set aside to educate black people during Reconstruction (after the Civil War). He became principal of the school in 1892 and stayed in that position until 1926. His house is apart of the National Register of Historic Places.
Mary Welford Wilson Gwynn. Source: Florida Memory
Principal John Gilmore Riley and students of Lincoln School c. 1920. Source: Florida Memory
By 1955, the population of Tallahassee had grown to almost 40,000 people. It would add 30,000 people by 1970. The bus boycott began in 1956 when two FAMU students refused to move to the back of the bus. This really began several boycotts for racial justice in Tallahassee. The first Springtime Tallahassee parade occurred in 1968 allegedly in response to some state politicians who tried to move government offices to the central part of the state.
R Frank Nims (1910-1958) was the principal of Lincoln High School and Nims Middle School is named in his honor. He is buried here in his family plot. Also buried in the cemetery is World War I veteran, Charles C. Tyles (1884-1966). Tallahassee City Commissioner (1949-1953) and Tallahassee Mayor (1952) Burr Augustus “Rat” Ragsdale, Sr (1887-1979) is buried here.
Restoration in 1991 to the Present Day:
In the 1980s the cemetery was vandalized. In the next decade action was taken to begin conservation on the graves. The Historic Tallahassee Preservation Board, the City of Tallahassee, the Florida Department of State, Sass Conservation of New York City, and the Center for Historic Cemeteries Preservation began work on the Old City Cemetery.
Not all the grave-markers were restored due to the limited funding. Stones that were vandalized in the 1980s were mostly restored. The cast iron fences were restored by artisans from New Orleans, New York, and Tallahassee.
Vandalism at Old City Cemetery in Tallahassee in the 1980s. Source: Florida Memory
Vandalism at Old City Cemetery in Tallahassee in the 1980s. Source: Florida Memory
Hattie Louise Coles (1898-1994) was amongst the first women to vote in Tallahassee after the ratification of the 19th Amendment. In 1927, she was appointed as Leon County’s Supervisor of Registration (now known as the Supervisor of Elections) after the death of her father, Flavius C. Cole. She won the election and kept the title until she retired in 1964. This made her the first woman to run as an elected official in Leon County. She is buried next to her father in the family plot.
Other/Of Note:
Fear and Dread in Tallahassee: This is a short article from Tallahassee Magazine about the Second Seminole War (1835-1842), mentioned above in the Territorial and City Acquisition section. There were several battles and skirmishes during this time period and a marked fear of attacks from the Seminoles, who used guerrilla warfare tactics.
African born couple, Francisci Felipe and Filis Edimboro, were owned by Don Francisco Sánchez. Sánchez was a wealthy St. Augustinian planter who lived in Florida during the Second Spanish Period (1784-1821). The Edimboros were able to buy their freedom and become landowners in St. Augustine. Their daughter, Eusebia Edimboro had a child with an enslaved man named Antonio Proctor. Proctor was able to perform translations between the Native Americans and the Spanish (and British). Proctor was able to earn his freedom through his service on the Spanish frontier. George Proctor, mentioned in the City Acquisition section, is the freeborn son from Eusebia and Antonio. George was a master carpenter and builder in Tallahassee, where he married his wife Nancy Chandler (an enslaved woman) in 1839. Ten years later, in 1849, George left Tallahassee for Sonora California (arriving in 1850) with several other Tallahassee businessmen for the California Gold Rush. George purchased some property in Sonora, became a landlord, and worked as a newspaper agent for the San Francisco Elevator. George died in 1868, still residing in California. George’s son with Nancy, John Proctor was a Florida Legislature representative (1873-75) and Senator (1883 -1886).
Dark Path of Slavery Took Odd Twists and Turns for Family. Orlando Sentinal. This goes more into why George left Tallahassee and what happened to Nancy and her children.
Tallahassee Hidden History dedicated marker, hosts exhibit at Garden Club. Tallahassee Democrat. This article is on the marker for the Proctor men (Antonio, George, and John).
The Puzzling Story of George Proctor, A Free Black Man During the Time of Slavery. Tallahassee Magazine. This is a deeper dive into George’s life, his financials, and his life in California.
Gravestone Symbolism and what the carvings meant and were inspired by:
Stoneletters - Gravestone Symbols and Carvings
Memorials - Symbols on Headstones Demystified
Yellow Fever Was The Scourge of Tallahassee and Surrounding Towns in 1841: A write up of the Yellow Fever Epidemic that hit Tallahassee in 1841 from Tallahassee Magazine.
Professor Karen L. Cox wrote the defining book on the Daughters of the Confederacy, their monuments, and their mission. It’s called Dixie’s Daughters: The United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Preservation of Confederate Culture. For more information about the UDC, the New York Times Opinion has an article by Professor Cox and the Associated Press News has an article from 2018.
Citations:
Atlas Obscura. “The Grave of Elizabeth Budd-Graham”.
Dehart, Jason. “Fear and Dread in Tallahassee: The Days of the Second Seminole War Proved Harrowing For the People of ‘Middle Florida’”. Tallahassee Magazine. July 20, 2012.
Dexter, Kerry. “Secrets and Stories in Tallahassee’s Old City Cemetery.” Perceptive Travel. 28 October 2019.
Dobson, Byron. “Old City Cemetery offers FSU students lessons in history, archaeology.” Tallahassee Democrat. 5 April 2018.
Fennell, Jennifer. “Florida’s First ordained black minister.” The Tallahassee 100. February 2018.
Find A Grave. Old City Cemetery.
Flank, Lenny. “Photo Diary: Tallahassee’s Old City Cemetery.” March 2016. Daily Kos.
Florida Cemeteries Project. “Old City Cemetery, Tallahassee, Florida”.
Florida Memory. Various.
Florida Public Archeology. “The Tallahassee Old City Cemetery.”
Hare, Julianne. Tallahassee: A Capital City History. Arcadia Publishing. 2002
LaFevor, David. “What Catholic Church records tell us about America’s earliest black history.” 27 February 2019.
Leon County GenWeb. Green Hill Chaires Cemetery.
Newspapers. “Old City Cemetery Mummy.”
Political Graveyard. “Old City Cemetery”.
Robinson, Erik T. Images of America: Tallahassee. Arcadia Publishing. 2003. P. 100.
Roman, Marisa. “The Story Behind This Florida Grave Site Is Both Spooky and Fascinating.” Only In Your State. August 20, 2019.
Tallahassee Cemeteries. “History of Old City Cemetery and St. John’s Episcopal Cemetery.”
Tallahassee Daily Photo. “Old City Cemetery”. March 2019.
Tallahassee Government. “Old City Cemetery.”
TalGov. “Old City Cemetery.” PDF Brochure.
Thompson, Sharyn. “ An Historical Overview of Tallahassee’s Old City Cemetery.” Florida’s Historic Cemeteries: A Preservation Handbook. December 12, 2004. The Center for Historic Cemeteries Preservation.
USA Today. “A virtual tour through the African American history of Tallahassee.” Via: Visit Tallahassee and Tallahassee Democrat. February 19, 2020.
Visit Tallahassee. “Old City Cemetery.”
Waymarking. “Union Solders Section, Old City Cemetery”. 21 December 2017.
Weird US. Tallahassee Witch Grave.