Famous Residents

Notable Residents

W.C. Bradley
One of the most prominent names in Columbus, Bradley was a jack-of-all-trades: an industrialist, a wholesale merchant, and an investor who served as Chairman of the Board for Coca-Cola for over twenty years.

Dr. Edwin L. DeGraffinreid
A physician and city Commissioner, deGraffinreid played an instrumental role in the early planning of Columbus, even choosing the river bluff on which the town was placed.

Noble Leslie DeVotie:
A Baptist minister and newspaper editor, DeVotie was the main contributing founder of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, the first national fraternity to be established in the Deep South.

Lizzie Rutherford Ellis
Lizzie was the leader of a local group of ladies who established the observance of Confederate Memorial Day, a practice that spread throughout the South in which every April 26th the graves of fallen Confederate soldiers were decorated.

Thomas Gilbert
Both a printer and a newspaper editor for The Sun, Gilbert is responsible for the first history of Columbus.

Louis Haiman
Originally from the Polish province of Posen, this Jewish tinsmith forged swords for the Confederacy during the war, and agricultural apparatus afterward.

H. Augusta Howard
As the woman who founded Georgia's Women Suffrage Association, Howard's headstone is emblazoned with the word "Martyr."

Tom Huston
Both an inventor and artistic photographer, Huston was the creative force behind Tom's Peanuts.

Johnnie Pearl Patrick Johnson
The mother of Hollywood screenwriter Nunnally Johnson, Johnnie was a driving force in Columbus' educational development, founding the local PTA organization and becoming the first woman to serve on the school board. In honor of her achievements her name was given to Johnson School.

Tabitha Lamar
Tabitha was the wife of Mirabeau Lamar, the man who not only founded the Columbus Enquirer, but also served as the second President of the Texan Republic, following the term of Sam Houston.

Georgia Mustian
One of the most elaborate headstones in Linwood Cemetery, this memorial to a twenty-five year old married woman features a sleeping child overlooked by a dove beneath an arch of rose blossoms.

Dr. John S. Pemberton
A pharmacist who was wounded in the last land battle of the Civil War here in Columbus, Pemberton would go on to concoct the secret formula to Coca-Cola.

Brig. General Paul J. Semmes
A local businessman and one time president of the Coweta Falls Textile Mill, Semmes answered the call of duty but fell on the field of battle at Gettysburg.

Francis Joseph Springer
A local grocer who took his savings and invested it in the construction of the theater that would bear his name, the Springer Opera House.

Dr. Francis Orray Ticknor
A full-time physician and part-time poet, Ticknor wrote the Civil War poem "Little Giffen."

Margaret Traylor
This woman's grave bears the image of an obelisk and willow tree in a single icon, a symbol believed to have traveled to Charleston, SC from Germany before finding its way to Linwood in 1849.

James Warner
A naval engineer who oversaw the Confederate Navy Yard in which the ironclad C.S.S. Muscogee was constructed, Warner was accidently killed in a row between locals and black federal troops during Reconstruction.

John Winter
An antebellum industrialist, former mayor, and staunch Unionist, Winter fled his homeland in 1861 but requested that his body be brought back to Columbus for burial.

J.W. Davis Woodmen of the World Marker
Having been a member of the fraternal insurance organization Woodmen of the World, J.W. Davis received the stylized tree trunk headstone associated with the fraternity's legacy.

William H. Young
During the mid-1800s, Young was one of Columbus' most prominent businessmen, responsible for starting the Eagle and Phenix Mills.