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By Bret Bell
Savannah Morning News

Savannah's dead still have stories to tell.

In Bonaventure Cemetery, their graves are windows to the city's past, offering history lessons carved in marble monuments and tabby crypts.

In the oldest section, they memorialize many of the city's finest -- Johnny Mercer and Conrad Aikens and the mayors, police chiefs and ministers who helped build Savannah.

But some of their stories have been lost since the cemetery was established 154 years ago, crumbling under the weight of time.

Concerned, Sarah Pinckney and a few other Bonaventure Historical Society members began doing some detective work five years ago. They began recording all information on markers for each of the 5,800 burials in Bonaventure's oldest sections and cross checking the data with cemetery and genealogical records.

The results, published in a bound index and entered into the city's archives on Thursday, is the most comprehensive registry ever compiled of Bonaventure.

"I see this as one of the most important historical publications produced in Savannah in a number of years," said historical society chairman Terry Shaw. "It's a catalog of some of the most important leaders in Savannah's history.

"If you lose the records of who is supposed to be buried in what spot, sooner or later those people completely disappear."

New research indicates the Roberts site was the first burial in historic Bonaventure Cemetery.
--Carl Elmore/Savannah Morning News

People like Dr. William Roberts, whom the historical society now believes was the first person buried in Bonaventure after Peter Witlberger turned part of the former plantation into Savannah's cemetery for the elite in 1846. He was killed during the Mexican War in 1847, according to Roberts' grave. His life remains a mystery.

Pinckney discovered the site during the inventory process a few years ago. Tucked behind the Tattnall family lot in Section E, the box crypt was in shambles, a cedar tree growing through its middle and its marble slab top broken into pieces. Azaleas were holding up the wrought iron fence surrounding it.

No mention of Roberts was found in burial records or other Savannah archives. Pinckney does not believe Roberts was a local resident, but says he was obviously important to some who lived here. After all, someone hauled his body back to Savannah, and on his grave included the inscription:

"His integrity, honor, social virtues and scientific attainments were worthy of his bravery and noble bearing. This tablet has been erected over his remains by a few friends and gentlemen of Savannah as an humble tribute to his gallantry and great moral worth."

The grave was restored and all of the information was added to the index. Dr. William Roberts is now part of the Savannah historical record.

"It does me good to know that we have helped bring some of these forgotten names to light again," Pinckney said. "It's an effort that should have been done a long time ago."

But, in the end, the reason Pinckney and three other women returned to the cemetery every Monday for five years was because it was fun. Bonaventure's setting, after all, is magical, and often turned up surprises.

Sarah Pinckney walks through the restored Bartholomew/Zaberbuhler plot at Bonaventure Cemetery.
--Carl Elmore/Savannah Morning News

Like when Pinckney found the crumbling grave of Bartholomew Zouberbuhler, a well-known minister of the Christ Church until his death 1766. The site of the minister's remains had been a mystery since his grave was moved from Colonial Cemetery to Bonaventure at some point.

Or when Pinckney found the marker for William Butler, who died in 1761. When she pieced together the broken marble slab marking his remains, and put some baking soda on the faded inscription to make it stand out, she read: "One of his majesty's honorable councils, whose amiable qualities and benevolent disposition when living endeared him to his good friends and dared excite in them a regret for the loss of so good a man."

"We like to read things like that -- we don't put those types of quotations on stones these days," Pinckney said. "It's like finding buried treasure."

History

The name Bonaventure comes from the Italian "Buona Ventura" for good fortune. It was one of the earliest plantations in Savannah. The land was granted to John Mullryne, an English colonel, in the 1760s, who operated it with his wife, Claudia. In 1847, the new owner of Bonaventure opened it as a cemetery. Title passed to the city in 1907.

To obtain the cemetery index, contact Sarah N. Pinckney, project chair, at 104 Ventura Boulevard, Savannah, GA 31419 or call 925-6471.

Learn more
Click on the links below to read more about Bonaventure Cemetery.

The Bonaventure Historical Society works to ensure preservation of Bonaventure Cemetery, which is a prime example of the "Rural Cemetery Movement," and is home to the popular century-old Gracie, a memorial to a police pioneer, and the sometimes controversial Bird Girl.

At Bonaventure, Sheila Andrews helps guide guests at Bonaventure; you can also take a virtual tour with photographer Steve Bisson.

Bonaventure Historical Society website: home.earthlink.net/~bonaventure