Visitors to the Rose Hill Cemetery, which sits by Brookhaven High School, can now walk through a freshly erected archway displaying the cemetery’s name and marked by a new historical marker from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

Tuesday morning at 10:30 a.m. members of the Lincoln County Historical and Genealogical Society, city officials and citizens of Brookhaven gathered for the unveiling ceremony.

“I’m glad to be finally getting it unveiled,” Rita Rich of the LCHGS said.

The marker is one of three that have been applied for and placed around the city of Brookhaven. One marker stands at Temple B’Nai Sholom, the other at the original site of Brookhaven near First Street and the third now at Rose Hill Cemetery.

LCHGS members, Rita Rich, Mary Francis Sasser Phillips and Sue Dorman handled the research for the markers. The research and application was then sent to the Department of Archives and History. The Board of Alderman helped pay for the signs one of which was held by the Mississippi Department of Transportation for two years while the cemetery’s new entrance way was under constructions.

“They did a beautiful job,” Rich said. “The city workers did the job, and we appreciate it.”

There is not a solid foundation story surrounding the cemetery. The main story goes that Milton Whitworth gave the land in 1861. However, there are five graves in the cemetery that date before then.

Three of those are children of Jesse and Sophia Warren with their deaths happening in 1850, 1853 and 1859. The two other marked graves lie in the oldest section of the grounds.

The name Rose Hill was given by an Amanda Sims Boswell.

Until the appointing of John E. Seavey as Cemetery Commissioner in 1889, Rose Hill Cemetery was kept up by a benefit arranged by ladies of the town. Seavey held the position until his retirement in 1924. By that time, sextons had been begun to be hired to take care of the cemetery full-time with the first of them being hired in 1901. The entrance and road to the cemetery was later added in 1913.

Over a hundred years later, the cemetery has grown to cover approximately 22 acres and holds over 6000 resting places. Also included in Rose Hill Cemetery is the Jewish cemetery located off East Monticello Street, the Catholic cemetery located between Monticello and Cherokee Street and the old Hoskins family cemetery located across the street from Rose Hill.

Among these cemeteries lie people from all walks of life and many countries.

It’s a great day for Brookhaven. It’s another marker that shows our history,” Mayor Joe Cox said after the unveiling. “It shows where we’ve come from and where we’re going.”