Way Back Wednesday in Calhoun County---February 14-20

On the corner of Tenth Street and Highland Avenue, lies Hillside Cemetery. Thousands of cars have passed by this well-manicured city cemetery, but how many have stopped to take a look inside. The cemetery dates to when the Anniston was still a closed-town under the tight control of the Woodstock Iron Company. No one knows the complete history of the cemetery but it was believed to be an African-American cemetery in the 1850s. When the Noble and Tyler families arrived with their iron works company in 1872, they brought in workers from their native Cornwall, England and solicited many employees from around the Eastern United States. A need for a cemetery arose in 1876, when John Hockin, the 19-year-old son of the company engineer, Richard Hockin, passed away. That year, Samuel Noble, Intendent (and company foreman) Charles O’Roarke, along with town council members, chose a site overlooking the city that had good draining and was suitable for burials to be the city’s cemetery.

The original cemetery design had a circular area in the center that divided the ground into four sections with manicured plots. The entrances to the cemetery were located on the Tenth and Eleventh Streets sides of the property. The Noble and Tyler families selected plots in the Northwest quadrant. The southeast quadrant, which had been the original African-American cemetery, remained the burial site for African-Americans in the city throughout segregation. In September 1903, a group of Jewish citizens asked the city for permission to maintain a Jewish cemetery contiguous to Hillside. Around the turn of the 20th Century, the cemetery expanded to include a portion that bordered Calhoun Place and Eleventh Street. The ladies of Anniston, in the early 20th Century, suggested forming an association to maintain and manage the upkeep of the cemetery. By 1921, control of the cemetery was turned over to the City of Anniston. In the 1930s, a two-room shack to house the cemetery sexton, a tool room, and restroom was constructed and a WPA beautification project saw trees and flowers planted at the site.

Walking through the cemetery is a tour of the lives of Anniston’s early citizens. Of course, Samuel Noble and his family are there along with General Daniel Tyler, who died in his Connecticut home but was returned to Anniston for internment. Father of the Anniston Park System and the Alabama Hotel W. H. Zinn’s final resting place is located in the section that borders Calhoun Place and like Tyler, he was returned from his home in the North to be interned in Anniston. Prominent lawyers Fred Blackmon, later U.S. Congressman, and John Knox have final resting places in the Hillside cemetery, too. In the Jewish section, Joseph Saks, owner of the Famous Store, and Anselm Sterne, a local grocer, are interned.

Hillside also has some lesser known family names like Jewell and Baker. These men and their families truly built Anniston with their hands. Simon Jewell, a master stonemason from Cornwall, England, was interned in Hillside along with his family including his mother, Elizabeth, who was the second person buried there. Jewell arrived in 1873 as a contractor for the Woodstock Iron Company but his handiwork can be seen on many of the churches in town. He was also a local Methodist minster and responsible for setting up the first Methodist church in Anniston. In addition to Jewell, Hillside is also the resting place of J. F. Baker, an earlier local contractor and builder.

One grave that would go perhaps go unnoticed, but had a huge impact on Hillside Cemetery is Roy Methvin’s resting spot. Methvin, a native a Georgia, moved to Anniston at a young age and was a descendent of the DeArman family. In 1919, he took on the position of caretaker for Hillside and remained the faithful caretaker until 1972. His story is just one of many Annistonians interned in Hillside Cemetery….There are soldiers, businessmen and women, and former slaves; but those stories will have to wait for another day.

To learn more about the history of Calhoun County pick up a copy of Images of America: Calhoun County (ISBN 978-0738589985), Anniston (ISBN 978-0738506012), or Anniston Revisited (ISBN 978-1467114752) by Kimberly O’Dell.