Old Live Oak Cemetery is an historic cemetery in Selma, Alabama that was founded in 1829 and expanded in 1877. The newer portion is sometimes called New Live Oak Cemetery and the cemetery is collectively known as Live Oak Cemetery. It contains burials of

Confederate States of America The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States or the Confederacy was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confeder ...

leaders, as well Benjamin Sterling Turner, an African-American who served as U.S. Representative for Alabama during the Reconstruction era. The cemetery is at 110 Dallas Avenue approximately west of downtown Selma.

Famous burials

* William R. King (1786–1853) 13th Vice-President of the United States. *

John Tyler Morgan John Tyler Morgan (June 20, 1824 – June 11, 1907) was an American politician was served as a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War and later was elected for six terms as the U.S. Senator (1877–1907) ...

(1824–1907) CSA General, then six-term U.S. senator after the war. An ardent racist and ex-slave holder, advocate for Jim Crow laws and racial segregation * Robert W. Barnswell (1849–1902) Episcopal Bishop of Alabama * Benjamin Sterling Turner (1825-1894) African American State representative that was born into slavery and freed during the civil war. Worked and died in Selma, Alabama

Confederate Circle

The graves of soldiers are to the south of the Confederate Soldier Monument, with cannons pointing north, forever protecting the deceased Confederates. Elodie Todd Dawson, buried nearby, was head of the Ladies Memorial Association (later the

United Daughters of the Confederacy The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) is an American neo-Confederate hereditary association for female descendants of Confederate Civil War soldiers engaging in the commemoration of these ancestors, the funding of monuments to them, ...

) and spearheaded the effort to build the $5,500 Confederate Monument in the cemetery. 155 soldier bodies were moved from elsewhere to be around the monument.

Other Confederate monuments

*Jefferson Davis Memorial Chair unusually in the form of a carved stone chair *Forrest Memorial (2000) inscribed in part "Defender of Selma, Wizard of the Saddle, Untutored Genius, The First with the Most, This Monument stands as a testament of our perpetual devotion and respect for Lt Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest ... One of the South's finest heroes."

Elodie Todd Dawson Monument

The Elodie Todd Dawson Monument marks the graves of Elodie Todd Dawson (April 1, 1844 – November 14, 1881) and her husband Confederate Col. Nathaniel H. R. Dawson (1829–1895). Elodie Todd Dawson was the half-sister of

Mary Todd Lincoln Mary Ann Todd Lincoln (December 13, 1818July 16, 1882) served as First Lady of the United States from 1861 until the assassination of her husband, President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Mary Lincoln was a member of a large and wealthy, slave-owning ...

the wife of President

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

. Her parents were Robert Smith Todd (1791–1849) and Elizabeth L Humphreys Todd (1800–1874) and she had 17 full or half siblings. After the war Dawson was appointed U.S. Commissioner of Education, the first from Alabama. Dawson also served as a member of the Alabama legislature which included serving as Speaker of the House. He was an organizer in the Democratic Party. Dawson was considered a leading citizen of Selma who raised money for Selma's Charity Hospital and Dallas Academy. He was a church leader at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, where his funeral was held. In 2015, the Elodie Todd Dawson sculpture was named one of Alabama's "most photographed cemetery monuments".

The Pigeon House

A structure also called the Spring House for when it was used, sits near the Confederate Soldier Monument. The unusual name arises from the gables that were designed as bird houses, since closed to preserve the structure. The building was used for

Confederate Memorial Day Confederate Memorial Day (called Confederate Heroes Day in Texas and Florida, and Confederate Decoration Day in Tennessee) is a cultural holiday observed in several Southern U.S. states on various dates since the end of the American Civil War. ...

band concerts and programs each Spring. It is now used for storage.

References

External links

* * * Library of Congress Imag

{{Coord, 32.40531, -87.03203, type:landmark, display=title cemeteries in Alabama Selma, Alabama