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Scottish Rite Freemasonry - Welcome to the Supreme Council, 33°, Ancient & Accepted Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction, USA
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 Back to March-April 2008 Issue
The Masonic Tourist: Wolihin Monument, Rose Hill Cemetery
written by David Ross, M.M.
 Macon, Georgia, is the home of the Grand Lodge of Georgia, F.&A.M., and its building stands a half mile or less from Rose Hill Cemetery, established by the then sixteen-year old city in 1840. It was designed by Simri Rose, city councilman and newspaper editor. He was also a gardener, horticulturist, and amateur landscape designer. After a trip to Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston, founded in 1831 as America’s first landscaped or garden cemetery, Rose returned to Macon to focus attention on building a cemetery-park that combined irregular, meandering paths, streams, and pools in a tiered, layered layout that rises and falls 142 feet above the river bed. He planted rare and exotic trees to complement the native flora, including oriental cypress, balm of Gilead, firs, hemlock, arbor vitae, juniper, wild olive, broom, thorn, and furze alongside the native oak, beech, poplar, and sycamore.
Simri Rose is buried along the bank of the Ocmulgee River in the cemetery that bears his name along with over 20,000 others. Some were or still are famous; some were known and loved only by immediate family and friends. Governors, judges, soldiers from both sides of the American Civil War, mayors, railroad men, and rock stars are buried at Rose Hill as are many Freemasons. Separate sections hold the graves of over six-hundred Confederate soldiers, for those of the Hebrew faith, and for Catholics. In the earliest days, one section of the cemetery, known as Oak Ridge, was kept separate for favored slaves, the plots being purchased by their masters.
 Photos: On the left, Bro. William A. Wolihin, 32°, Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Georgia, F.&A.M., 1897–1916; Above, The Wolihin Monument in Rose Hill Cemetery(Cemetery photo by David Ross, M.M.)I grew up in Macon, and drove past the cemetery many, many times, but it was just recently while in town for the Christmas holidays, that I finally spent a few hours walking through the huge, park-like setting of Rose Hill. I took over a hundred photos of graves, tombs, mausoleums, and other monuments to those now departed. Many of the older grave monuments had the Masonic square and compasses engraved upon them. While some had the letter G inside the S&C, most of the older Masonic markers did not.
Just inside the entrance to Rose Hill, with a backdrop of the city skyline, are the graves of Ill. Andrew Martin Wolihin, 33° (1831–1897), his wife, Emily Francis Wilder Wolihin (1840–1921), and their son, Bro. William A. Wolihin, 32° (1862–1916). Bro. Andrew was Raised in Dawson Lodge No. 67, Crawfordville, and Bro. William in Macon Lodge No. 5. Both were charter members of Mabel Lodge No. 255 in Macon, Bro. William was the charter Master of Mabel Lodge, and each served as Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Georgia, 1885–1897 and 1897–1916 respectively. The senior Wolihin served as a captain in the Confederate Army, fighting against the Union in Tennessee and Georgia.
 Sometime in the early twentieth century, the Wolihin family erected a monument to Bros. Andrew and William. It’s perhaps the most extraordinary Masonic sculpture I’ve ever seen. The columns Jachin and Boaz, complete with globes atop them, stand in front of and to each side of a holy altar upon which rests the Volume of Sacred Law and the square and compasses. An olive wreath surrounding crossed quills is on the side of the altar. On the front of the altar is a Star of David (photo right), inside of which are clasped hands and surrounding it are the letters “H T W S S T K S,” familiar to Royal Arch Masons. (Andrew served as Grand High Priest of the Grand Chapter, R.A.M., of Georgia in 1885, and both Andrew and William were Grand Secretaries of that body.) A knee rest is in front of the altar.
As a mark of esteem for Bro. Andrew, immediately after his death Georgia brethren renamed two Masonic lodges in his memory. Long Cane Lodge No. 132 in Long Cane (now in Crawfordville) became Andrew M. Wolihin Lodge No. 132, and South Macon Lodge No. 390 in Macon renamed itself Wolihin Lodge No. 390.
The lapse of time, the ruthless hands of vandals, and a series of tornadoes in the 1950s have changed the landscape of Rose Hill Cemetery from what it was in 1840, but it remains a beautiful and moving place. Rose Hill Cemetery is located on Riverside Drive in Macon, Georgia, near the interchange of Interstate Highways 75 and 16. If you find yourself traveling through Georgia, to or from Florida along I-75, or to or from the Georgia coast along I-16, you’re just minutes from an incredible historical treasure.
 David Ross
a Freemason, freelance writer, blogger, and naturopathic health consultant, is a past officer, director of Masonic education, and webmaster of Pickens Star Lodge No. 220, F.&A.M., an honorary member of Blaine Lodge No. 534, and a member of Pickens Chapter No. 28, R.A.M., and Pickens Council No. 55, R. & S.M., of Jasper, Georgia. He can be reached at . The Scottish Rite Journal (ISSN 1076-8572) is published bimonthly by the Supreme Council, 33°, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry of the Southern Jurisdiction, United States of America, 1733 Sixteenth St., NW, Washington, DC 20009-3103. |
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