Pickens County progress. (Jasper, Ga.) 1899-current, January 20, 2005, Image 6

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Newspaper Page TextPAGE 6A PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS THURSDAY. JANUARY 20. 2005 Gone but not forgotten Effort underway to preserve grave site of marble industry founder With the Emerys Marble Hill operation visible through trees in the background, a monument in the Fitzsimmons family cemetery stands near the graves of Henry T. Fitzsimmons (left) and his wife, Almyra (right). By Jeff Warren On a steep incline overlooking bare winter trees and the throbbing Emerys operation at Marble Hill, an old marble monument stands. Two round-topped headstones flank the dark-stained memorial. One marks the resting place of Almyra Fitzsimmons. The second is for Henry T., her husband, founder of the local marble industry and vic tim of an unsolved murder. According to legend, during the 1830s, Henry T. Fitzsimmons was traversing the Federal Road by stagecoach on his way to examine some property in Tennessee or northwest Georgia. Along the way, Fitzsimmons was put off the coach for rowdiness. Set afoot near the modern site of the Tate House, Henry T. stumbled across a stone outcropping. With a background in stone cutting, Fitzsimmons saw the outcropping for what it was: workable white marble and the basis for an indus try. At the time, Fitzsimmons lived with his family in Gwinnett Coun ty, but by 1833 he was buying land around Marble Hill. Fitzsimmons eventually moved here to what was then part of Cherokee County. He owned several land-lots along Fong Swamp Creek where he did surface quarrying and produced monu ments. In time, Fitzsimmons operated three quarries and a water-powered mill for sawing marble. He called his enterprise the Fong Swamp Marble Company. Years before the railroad reached this region, Fitzsimmons delivered his compa ny's headstones and monuments by ox-drawn wagon. Researchers believe Fitzsim mons, an Irishman, persuaded Irish friends, John Frohock and James Ferrell to join him working stone at Marble Hill. Frohock and Ferrell showed up in the area not long after Fitzsimmons did. In 1840 Fong Swamp Marble erected a monument on the court house lawn at Lawrenceville. Cred ited as the first memorial carved from Georgia marble, the obelisk honored Gwinnett County men who died in the Texas revolution at Gilead and others who fell in a local battle with members of the Creek Nation. It is also believed Fong Swamp company furnished marble mile markers for the Western and Atlantic Railroad. The state of Georgia built the railroad from Atlanta to Chattanooga, starting in the 1840s. If the story on the mile markers is true, Sherman's soldiers had Fitzsimmons' mileposts to mark their southward progress as they descended the railroad 20 years later in the Atlanta Campaign. In Marble, Fitzsimmons pros pered. In an oil portrait from the era Fitzsimmons has the appearance of a landed gentleman. But he was possibly a rowdy at heart. Fitzsim mons departed this life on Christ mas Eve 1844, the victim of mur der. Legend says he got his throat cut on the short end of a brawl in the home of his friend, John Fro hock. Fitzsimmons' murderer escaped justice. A lawyer named Dunlap admin istered Henry Fitzsimmons' estate to the detriment of the Fitzsmmons heirs. In a relatively short time, Fitzsimmons' fortune and land holdings passed from the hands of his family. At the estate sale of Henry Fitzsimmons' personal effects, Irishman, John Monday bought one book, A History of Ireland, for 20 cents. Six months later, Monday married Fitzsimmons' widow, Almyra, and fathered a daughter, Georgiann. Six years later in the 1850 cen sus, neither husband nor daughter lived with Almyra. By the 1860 census, the daughter had returned. John Monday was not heard from again. Later in 1860, Almyra died. She lies beside her first husband, Henry Fitzsimmons, and the Fitzsimmons surname is scribed on her headstone. In the division of the Fitzsim mons estate, Georgiann was given an equal share with Fitzsimmons' own children. Today the Fitzsimmons ceme tery occupies seven tenths of an acre on a steep hillside. It is the only visible reminder that Henry T. once controlled a number of land- lots in the vicinity. Presently the Marble Valley Historical Society is cooperating with county govern ment and Jasper city government to restore and improve the Fitzsim mons graveyard. Local historian, Mimi Jo Butler, a member of the historical society, has researched the Fitzsimmons family. She believes Fitzsimmons and his wife [whose graves are marked] lie among the graves of Fitzsimmons' three sons and numerous grandchildren. "Who knows who else?" Butler added. She sees irony in the field of plain graves. The Fitzsimmons family, who made their bread in the monument business, marked the graves of their own with un-scribed stones. Even the graves of Henry T. and his wife went unmarked until interested folk assumed the task. "Sixty-one years after the death of Henry," Butler said, "the Mason ic Lodge were the ones who put the monument there." "Colonel Sam Tate was made president of the Georgia Marble Company in 1905," Butler said. Tate also headed the Marble Hill Masonic Lodge. "I'm sure through his leadership," Butler said, "the lodge decided to put up the monu ment." The memorial bears the masonic emblem. Ownership of the Fitzsimmons family plot has changed hands four times since Henry T.'s death. Emerys, the international corpora tion that controls what once was Georgia Marble Company owns the cemetery today. The Marble Valley Historical Society approached Emerys about donating the ceme tery for preservation purposes. The 0.717-acre plot sits on the corner of a much larger parcel. According to Butler, Emerys is reluctant to give up the cemetery and suggested the historical society may actually want the plot to mine marble. When society members approached Emerys for permission to clear brush from the overgrown cemetery, Emerys refused, saying the company would be liable for accidents on the property. Ultimately Pickens County gov ernment provided community serv ice workers who did the clearing. And the county assumed responsi bility for accidents during the clear ing operation. Butler holds out hope that Emerys will eventually donate the cemetery land as an act of good will and public relations. Local historian, J. B. Hill, sparked Mimi Jo Butler's interest in the old Fitzsimmons plot. Butler's father, Hill, worked for the Georgia Marble Company and edited the company magazine, The Memorial Salesman. Butler said her father believed Henry T.'s contribution to the local marble industry was largely over looked. 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Butler believes her dad, now deceased, would applaud pres ent efforts to preserve the cemetery. "He really wanted very much what we're doing now to happen," Butler said. "When he got sick it's one of the last trips he made [to re examine the old site]." At the base of the Fitzsimmons monument are these words: He was the first man to introduce the sale of Georgia marble .... Across the hollow and the highway, the corpo ration that owns Fitzsimmons' for mer land holdings, his commercial legacy, and his resting place crush es the white stone to fine powder and sells it by the ton. Local historian, Mimi Jo Butler, provided historical background for this story through a Progress inter view and an article she wrote for Gerald Reid's Mountain Peeks. Contributions to the Marble Vcdley Historical Society for preservation of the Fitzsimmons cemetery are tax-deductible. 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Pickens County progress. (Jasper, Ga.) 1899-current, January 20, 2005, Image 6