A Ghost at the Gartrell Monument

Marietta City Cemetery
381 Powder Springs Street
Marietta, Georgia

Thanks to a wonderful friend of mine, I now have a marvelous new blog header. The angel tops a monument to Mary Annie Gartrell erected by her sister Lucy. Tradition has it that Lucy visited her sister’s grave twice a week dressed in black mourning clothes. Over time, with Lucy’s biweekly appearances, she became known around town as the “Lady in Black.”

Gartrell Monument, 15 January 2011, the snow is not a usual occurrence in Georgia. Photo by Lewis O. Powell, IV, all rights reserved.

Marietta, located northwest of Atlanta and now a part of a the Atlanta metro area, was chartered in 1834, sometime before the creation of Atlanta. Of course every growing town needs a burying ground and the City Cemetery was established around the time the city was chartered. Over time, it has become the resting place for a cross-section of Marietta’s citizens and during the Civil War, many Confederate soldiers from throughout the South were buried in the adjoining Confederate Cemetery.

The ranks of Confederate Dead in the Confederate Cemetery adjoining the Marietta City Cemetery, 15 January 2011. Photo by Lewis O. Powell, IV, all rights reserved.

Over time, ghosts have been reported in the cemetery. The earliest reports, according to the cemetery brochure published by the Marietta Department of Parks and Recreation, come from a cemetery sexton in 1895 who reported a number of figures in the cemetery. Legend holds that the Gartrell Monument is still visited by a “Lady in Black” over a half-century after the death of Lucy, the original Lady in Black.

Update: 1 November 2017. Since the changeover to a new blog, I have retired my original header, though I’m still using a picture of the Gartrell Monument.

Sources

  • Akamatsu, Rhetta. Haunted Marietta. Charleston, SC: History Press, 2009.
  • Marietta City Cemetery and Confederate Cemetery Brochure. Marietta, GA: Marietta Department of Parks and Recreation. No Date.
  • Scott, Thomas A. “Marietta.” New Georgia Encyclopedia. 30 September 2003.