Riverside Cemetery turns 190 years old

The old section of historic Riverside Cemetery in Marianna.

Riverside Cemetery is a historic burial ground in the southeast corner of the charming old city of Marianna, Florida. It turns 190 years old this year.

Riverside was laid out by Robert and Anna Beveridge in 1827. They new that their soon to be developed town would need a public burial ground. They selected a spot on a separate hill just beyond their planned community.

The Beveridges had come down to Florida from Baltimore, Maryland. Mr. Beveridge was a successful merchant and with his wife possessed strong political connections. Their investors included many prominent allies of Andrew Jackson.

Grave of Arthur Lewis
Killed in the Battle of Marianna

Sadly, one of the first people to be buried in the cemetery was Mrs. Beveridge herself. She was only 24 years old but already the mother of three children when she came down with the fever and died on March 24, 1830.

She was buried in Riverside Cemetery, but the location of her grave site has been lost to time. It is certainly possible that she is buried in one of the ancient brick crypts in the oldest part of the cemetery.

The section includes some of the oldest oak trees in Marianna.

The former area where both slaves and free African Americans were buried is just downhill from the crypts and markers of Marianna's earliest white settlers. The wooden markers that once designated the burial places of early African American residents have long since rotted away, although indentations in the ground still mark their graves in the southwest corner of the oldest part of the cemetery.

Burial trenches of Confederate soldiers at Riverside Cemetery.

Two burial trenches contain the remains Confederate soldiers who died at the Marianna Post Hospital in 1863-1865. Most of these men were the victims of illness or infections and their graves are marked by small headstones. Near them rest several of the local citizens and soldiers who died in the Battle of Marianna on September 27, 1864.

Separated from the area of oldest graves is a single monument to a Union soldier, Lt. Isaac Adams of the 2nd Maine Cavalry. He was mortally wounded in the Battle of Marianna.

Adams no longer rests at Riverside, but his monument remains.  He and other Union dead from the battle were exhumed during the late 1800s and their remains taken to Barrancas National Cemetery near Pensacola.

Monument to Lt. Isaac Adams, 2nd Maine Cavalry

The lieutenant's grave played a key role in the Reconstruction era confrontations that rocked Jackson County. Several young girls - relatives of men and boys killed in the Battle of Marianna - removed the flowers from Lt. Adams' grave and scattered them in the dirt. They were hauled before a military court, but showed up with backing from almost the entire community.

The Carpetbagger officials who ruled Marianna after the War Between the States (or Civil War) backed down in the face of this show of support and released the girls. The incident is remembered today as the "Battle of the Flowers" and was the beginning of the local uprising that eventually drove out the occupying force that controlled Jackson County from 1865-1876.

Riverside Cemetery is a peaceful and beautiful place. The azaleas and dogwoods bloom each spring, giving the cemetery a surreal charm.

A stroll through its acres and acres of stones and graves offers you the chance to walk not just through the history of Marianna and Jackson County, but through the history of Florida, the South and the Nation.

The main entrances to the oldest part of the cemetery are on Franklin Street, two blocks south of Jackson Street, in Marianna, Florida. It is open to the public during daylight hours.

#99 Riverside Cemetery (100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida)

Riverside Cemetery in Marianna, Florida

This is the second post in a series on "100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida."  Click here to see all of the posts as they come online.

#99 on our list of great things about Jackson County, Florida, is historic Riverside Cemetery. You may not think of a cemetery as a "great place," but this one is special.

Part of the original plan of the City of Marianna, Riverside Cemetery was laid out by Robert and Anna Beveridge when they surveyed the future community in 1827. The two developers moved down to Florida from Baltimore, Maryland, where Mr. Beveridge had been a successful merchant. Wealthy and with strong political connections, they selected the modern site of Marianna and were its original owners and promoters.

Grave of Arthur Lewis
Killed in the Battle of Marianna

All planned communities needed space for a cemetery, so the Beveridges designated a hilltop just to the southeast of their planned town for that purpose. With the fevers and illnesses that then routinely swept over Florida and the Gulf Coast, the burial ground quickly came into use.

Sadly, one of the first people buried there was Mrs. Beveridge herself. Only 24 years old but already the mother of three children, she came down with the fever and died on March 24, 1830. She was buried in Riverside Cemetery, likely in one of the brick crypts still seen there today, but the exact location of her grave has been lost to time.

The old section of the cemetery includes some of the most ancient oak trees in Marianna and is nestled on a hilltop surrounded by nearly 190 years of graves. The former slave section is just downhill from the historic crypts and markers. The wooden markers that once designated the burial places of African Americans who lived and died either as slaves or in Marianna's small antebellum community of free blacks have long since rotted away, but the indentations in the ground that mark their graves can still be seen.

The burial trenches where Confederate soldiers who died at the Marianna Post Hospital in 1863-1865 are marked by small headstones. Nearby rest several of the local citizens who died in the Battle of Marianna.

Monument to Lt. Isaac Adams, 2nd Maine Cavalry

Separated from both the old slave plot and the area of oldest graves is a single monument to Lt. Isaac Adams of the 2nd Maine Cavalry. A Union soldier, he was mortally wounded in the Battle of Marianna. He no longer rests at Riverside, but his monument remains.  Adams and the other Union dead were exhumed during the late 1800s and their remains taken to Barrancas National Cemetery near Pensacola.

His grave, however, played a key role in the Reconstruction era confrontations that rocked Jackson County. Several young girls - relatives of men and boys killed in the Battle of Marianna - removed the flowers from Lt. Adams' grave and scattered them in the dirt. They were hauled before a military court, but showed up with backing from almost the entire community. The Carpetbagger officials who ruled Marianna after the War Between the States (or Civil War) backed down in the face of this show of support and released the girls. The incident is remembered today as the "Battle of the Flowers" and was the beginning of the local uprising that eventually drove out the occupying force that controlled Jackson County from 1865-1876.

Riverside Cemetery today is a peaceful and beautiful place. In the spring, when the azaleas and dogwoods bloom, it takes on a surreal charm. A walk through its acres and acres of stones and graves is a walk not just through the history of Marianna and Jackson County, but through the history of Florida, the South and the Nation.

The main entrances to the oldest part of the cemetery are on Franklin Street, two blocks south of Jackson Street, in Marianna.

Riverside Cemetery - Marianna, Florida

One of the oldest cemeteries in Northwest Florida can be found in the southeast corner of Marianna.

When Marianna was founded and settled during the late 1820s, the hilltop now occupied by Riverside Cemetery was set aside for use as a community burial ground. The original owners of the property, Robert and Anna Beveridge, were also the founders of Marianna.

The oldest graves at Riverside are believed to date from the 1820s. Some of the stones and crypts marking these early burials still exist, but the names have long since faded away.

Among those known to be buried here is Mrs. Beveridge herself, one of the women for whom the city of Marianna is named. She died at Marianna in 1830, shortly after relocating to Florida from Maryland and had not yet reached the age of 30. Her exact burial site is unknown, but the oldest section of the cemetery occupies a hilltop in its western sector.

The Site of Webbville

This hilltop a few miles northeast of Cottondale is the site of the Jackson County ghost town of Webbville. I've received a number of questions recently about Webbville, so here are a few of the facts.

The community was founded during the 1820s, just ahead of the founding of Marianna by Robert and Anna Maria Beveridge, and named for a prominent local attorney. Originally a rival town to Marianna, Webbville battled with the Beveridge's settlement for the status of County Seat of Jackson County. The fight turned into one of the greatest political spats in Florida history.

Although Webbville was a prosperous little community, it was hampered in its political dreams by the fact that it was located on a 16th Section. Under law, these sections were reserved for school purposes. In addition, Marianna was located on the Chipola River and Webbville was pretty much high and dry (although there was a small spring nearby). This was significant because the Chipola was then used to barge bales of cotton downstream to the Gulf of Mexico.

As the political forces of the two communities battled, both the Florida Territorial Council and the U.S. Congress became involved. At one point, an entirely new county (Fayette County) was even carved from eastern Jackson County in an effort to break Marianna's voting success. Fayette County was shortlived, however.

The battle finally seemed to be at an end when the U.S. Congress finally designated Webbville as the County Seat of Jackson County. The Territorial Council (same as today's state legislature), however, fired a final shot that settled the issue for good. Legally unable to overrule the U.S. Congress, the Council voted to impose a fine on any public official in Jackson County who did not conduct business from the courthouse in Marianna.

The threat of paying fines solved things fast and all of the county's public officials moved to Marianna. Webbville eventually faded away and today is nothing more than a dirt road leading across a pine covered hill.

Curiously, though, unless the action of Congress that designated the community as county seat has been changed, Webbville remains the official County Seat for Jackson County.