Natchez City Cemetery: 200th Anniversary Celebration

200 Anniversary Celebrationth

PHOTOGRAPHY BY Becky Jex

Natchez, Mississippi, boasts many exquisite jewels from its unique historic structures to its imposing bluffs, to its three-hundred years of vibrant, eclectic culture; but the Crown Jewel for many is the Natchez City Cemetery. Throughout 2022, this jewel celebrates its 200th Anniversary with exciting events.

The Natchez City Cemetery is located in the Cemetery Bluff District and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The original cemetery, though, was founded during the Spanish rule from 1779-1789 at the current location of the town’s Memorial Park. By 1821 this cemetery had become neglected and overcrowded, forcing the city fathers in 1822 to purchase a ten-acre tract near the city for a new cemetery. Most remains from the old burial grounds were moved to this site.

In the late 1800s and early1900s, when neglect again victimized the cemetery, twelve concerned, determined women assumed governance of the cemetery in1907 with the city incorporating the Natchez City Cemetery Preservation and Improvement Association.

With little money from the city, these twelve raised the funds needed for cemetery restoration by using their own money, selling eggs, soliciting donations, and enlisting locals for cemetery work. Their contribution to the cemetery and city remains monumental as they set the stage for continuing their vision of the Natchez City Cemetery as a haven of reverence and inspiration.

Renamed the Natchez City Cemetery Association in 1925, this group continues to safeguard this jewel that attracts people from across the nation and beyond. In 2004 the cemetery received the Blue Ribbon Award from Turner South Network as the most interesting cemetery in the South.

Those who enter the cemetery’s main gate are awed by its over one-hundredacre expanse. Directly in front of them, towering live oaks frame the entrance avenue inspiring respect and reflection from those entering beneath their watch. Slightly to the left and near the stone wall that borders Cemetery Road, stands the fabled Turning Angel. Multitudes come to the cemetery especially to drive slowly by her to watch her eyes as they seem to follow.

Ahead and to the left of the avenue is the Shelter House, built in 1914 by renowned architect Samuel Abraham Marx, a Natchez native and MIT graduate. This structure, which serves as the office and setting for association meetings, is a notable academic expression of the Arts and Craftsman movement of the early twentieth century.

Also unique to the cemetery are four Cistern Houses, possibly the only such cemetery structures in existence with their open-air octagonal shapes and pyramidal roofs. Inside, are built-in benches surrounding a cistern, meant in times past as a respite from inclement weather. The cemetery is home as well to creatively designed fences, benches, mausoleum doors, tombstones, and monuments that rival similar works across the nation.

In its park-like setting, the cemetery provides horticultural intrigue with its ubiquitous cedar trees, majestic oaks dotting the landscape, four-hundred-plus

crepe myrtles tended by the Natchez Master Gardeners, and antique roses cared for by The Garden Lovers of Natchez.

My friend, Mimi Miller, Executive Director Emerita of the Historic Natchez Foundation, tells me that this cemetery is her favorite Natchez destination since it offers history, art, architecture, and landscape in one venue overlooking the Mississippi River. Local resident and novelist Greg Isles commented, “For me, the most curious thing about the Natchez City Cemetery is how alive and vital it feels. It may be the most peaceful place I have ever known, yet despite its function, it does not seem an abode of death, but of life.” Indeed, it welcomes families, joggers, dog-walkers, photographers, genealogists, historians, and anyone curious about what lies within its gates.

Over 50,000 stories rest with those who lie in this cemetery’s hallowed grounds. In 2000 some of these tales began to be told through the annual staging of Angels on the Bluff. In these November productions, actors in period clothing share the sagas of select cemetery residents, drawing living audiences nearer to those who have gone before.

Throughout 2022, the Natchez Cemetery Association will showcase the cemetery’s 200th Anniversary in a myriad of ways. Beginning in January, weekly “Did You Know?” segments will educate social media visitors about some of the interesting cemetery residents.

On March 26, the anniversary’s signature event, A Gala under the Oaks, will entertain guests in Memorial Park as they “Dine and Dance where it all began.” On hand will be live music with vocalists, scrumptious fare from popular chefs, encounters with past Angels on the Bluff characters, and comfortable seating at festively decorated tables for ten.

Tickets ($100 donation half of which is deductible) for this event go on sale January 1; and sponsorships for this event are available as well, all to benefit restoration of the Shelter House. Commemorative 200th Anniversary T-shirts will be for sale at the Gala and currently are available at Threads in Natchez.

Chairing the anniversary activities, Terry Stutzman explained additional projects: “Plans are being made to offer scavengerhunt activities to highlight many of the gravesites and structures. Also, a photography contest will be open to both amateurs and professionals.” In addition, the year’s Angels on the Bluff is scheduled for November 10, 11, and 12 and will include some previous favorites and one of the residents moved from Memorial Park in 1822.

Finally, as Stutzman added, “To tie a lovely Christmas bow around the year’s celebration, Christmas wreaths will be sold with proceeds going to the Shelter House restoration. Through the generosity of faithful supporters of the Natchez City Cemetery, on-going preservation and improvements can be made to all areas of the cemetery. Help to launch the Natchez City Cemetery into its third century as the guardian of precious memories of lives well lived and reallife stories that should be remembered and passed on to future generations.”

Elise Rushing, President of the Natchez Cemetery Association commented, “We invite everyone to be part of the 200th Anniversary Celebration of the Natchez City Cemetery. We are most fortunate that our community has always supported efforts to keep the cemetery a place all can be proud of. Please support this year’s venture as sponsors or through ticket purchases. You make all this possible.”

For Gala information, contact Annette Holder at holdersantiques@bellsouth.net; for Gala tickets visit natchez/ms/us/150/ Cemetery. Other contacts include P.O. Box 1738, Natchez, MS 39121; 601-445-5051; and FB/Natchez City Cemetery.

Historical background for this article was provided by Shirley Petkovsek, former president and board member of the Natchez City Cemetery Association, with details of the 2022 events furnished by various current board members.